The not so simple life of Anthony Stark
by Demi.T. Greca
Summary: Tony Stark is not a simple man and has a less simple life. When his dark past comes back to hunt him everything gets out of control and even Pepper can't do anything about it. Will he make it or destroy his relationship with Pepper along with his life?
1. Chapter 1

**Writer's note: Here's my first attempt on my favorite Avenger and the ultimate super hero, Iron Man! **

** I love Tony Stark and I believe Robert just got out of the Marvel Universe and doesn't remember it due to black hole traveling amnesia!**

**I don't own Iron Man(sadly), just the characters I created in this story.**

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><p>It looked like it would be a beautiful, silent night. The sky was pitch black, the stars where shining and the waves where singing just for him. It was nice, too nice and he changed it for that.<p>

Now the sky had a million and one colours, the stars were walking among men, lights where flashing damaging the eyes and people were screaming like it was the end of the world.

To him it was another boring fundraising ball but now he understood why she called them, hell on earth.

He stopped the car in front of the building, just a few feet behind the black limo. The screams around him should have been deafening but he couldn't hear a thing. A young man opened his door but he was as good as a ghost to him.

He waited.

Another young man opened the limo's door helping a lady out of it. She was very beautiful, a slim figure on high hill, classic dress and unmistakable red hair.

Tony jumped off his car like he was stroked by a lightning and got to her side in two steps.

"Ms. Potts!" he yelled surprising her.

"Tony! What are you doing here? I thought…" she said but he interrupted her.

"Why wasn't I invited?" he asked taking her arm to escort her in.

"Tony…"

"No, why was I invited but never got my invitation?" Tony asked childish.

"First, you were no invited, the CEO of the Stark Industries was, aka me, and second I told you there was a charity event…"

"When?" he cut her off.

"This morning." Pepper answered politely. She knew how to handle a childish and irrational Tony.

"Really? I don't remember." Tony said pretending to check out the place. There was a good chance she was saying the truth and he really hated that.

"Maybe you should actually listen when I talk to you rather than nodding blankly while dirty thoughts cross your mind." Pepper said giving him a fake smile.

Tony looked at her and smirked.

She was wearing a strapless, blue dress that matched her eyes and figure.

"Well, Ms. Potts, as your boyfriend I believe I have that right, as well as escorting you to charity events. Besides, you don't really want to go in there alone, with all those men." He said.

"Oh, I'm used to it." she said but he ignored her pulling her inside the ball room.

"I thought our relationship was supposed to be secret." She said smiling for the photographers that gathered around them like crows over dead meat.

"I never agreed to that and it's not the first time we're going to a charity event together." Tony replied making her smile.

"So why are we here?" he asked her heading to the bar.

Pepper sighed and answered in defeat.

"It's a fundraising for Lost Children's Home."

"I love children." Tony said and earned a look from Pepper.

"I do! When they are not around me." He explained

The night went as those nights always went. Women were lurking around Tony with him responding enjoying the jealousy in Pepper's eyes. She looked really smoking just talking with others, pretending to be cool but giving him those I-will-kill-you looks every once and a while. What Tony didn't enjoy was men lurking around _his _Pepper, making her laugh and kissing her on the cheeks. He felt his ears burning and he wished he could wear his suit and kick their butts all across the globe.

Were there always so many men in those events? Didn't they have wives or something?

Pepper was grinning as his eyes were turning green and he was sure she was really enjoying it.

Before the end of the evening, the President of the institution gave a speech as it was common.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

I want to thank you for coming here today to help our children. I've been in this institution for almost fifteen years and I honestly tell you I never get tired of it.

I get sad when I see more and more children coming to us instead of being with their families. It is a difficult task but it's worth it and there's nothing that could make us happier than seeing them happy and successful."

He said and took a big breath raising his chest.

"I am honored to present you one of our kids, a true genius as many people have said, graduating MIT at eighteen…"

"I did that when I was seventeen." Tony snored earning an elbow from Pepper.

"Tony!" she yelled at him making him sash and hear the speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for the kids to speak,

Ms. Mildred Candlelight!" he said and stepped aside for a girl to come up on the stage.

She had chocolate brown hair and white skin, she was wearing worn out jeans, a white shirt with a dark blue jacket and black all stars.

"Why don't I get to wear jeans in ballrooms? Tony whined.

"Because you're Tony Stark." Pepper answered.

"One more reason for it." he said making her avert her eyes in despair.

"Thank you, Mr. M. Can I call you Mr. M in front of all these people? All kids call him Mr. M, you know." She told the crowd making it laugh.

"My name is Mildred Candlelight and fourteen years ago I had a family." She said and everyone stopped. Silence fell upon the room as the girl told her story.

"I had a dad named George, a mum named Mary and three brothers, George Jr., Robert and Chris. They told me our house caught on fire and that it was a miracle I survived. They died that night, all of them, but I'm not sad because I don't remember them. To me they never existed and all I have is a half burned picture and a few tales I have to believe are true."

Pepper turned to look at Tony. He seemed lost, not taking his eyes from the girl but with his mind being elsewhere. He was very sensitive when it came to losing parents.

"The only family I've ever know was the Institution of the Lost Children's Home." She said changing her tone, like allowing the crowd to breath.

"Thanks to your money, me and other children were able to grow up with a roof over our heads and of course love. Lots of love!" she said emphasizing the last part.

"Mr. M here loveeeeeeeees us. Oh, I will never forget running to his office, that warm office while our rooms were cold and black with humidity." She said and faced the man who stood in the corner taking a loving face putting her hand over her heart.

"You were like a father to me Mr. M, I admired you in those fancy clothes and dreamed of getting out of those second handed and ruined clothed you always gave us." She said raising whispers across the hall.

Tony's face started to change taking a well know expression to Pepper.

Mr. Lark tried to make the girl stop but it was too late.

"Loving people, caring people, second parents with mansions and expensive cars coming to visit us, the starving and friezing poor little kids! Oliver Twist was just the boy next door and the day I left to go to college was the happiest day of my life!

I would like to change the world but it seems I can't. What I can do is tell you that your money has become Mr. Lark's car, Mr. Lark's new home at the beach, Mr. Lark's holiday in the Caribbean and Mrs. Lark's expensive furs!

Do you want to help those kids? Take a damn second and think about them!

Thank you!" she said with the whispers becoming loud dialogs and yelling with Mr. Lark trying to save what ever he could.

"Pepper…" Tony said.

Pepper looked at him. He seemed angry, mad, clenching and unclenching his fists being one step away from getting up on the stage and beating Lark to the death.

"Take the institution away from that bastard and make sure those kids are taken care of." He said serious.

"Right away." She said not giving another thought. How can you even think when it comes to something like that? Taking advantage of orphans and abused children to your own profit? The very idea made her shiver.

"Will you come home with me?" she yelled at his back seeing him disappear but she already knew the answer.

…

It didn't took him long to find that girl. She was in one of the private corridors around the ball room.

"Nice speech." He said approaching her.

"Thanks, I've preparing it for the past four years." She said with her back on him finding the wall far more interesting than him.

"Well, I made sure your friends are taken good care of from now on." He said and she burst into laughing hitting the wall.

"That's a good one. Taken good care of. For how long? A month? Maybe two, about a year? Until your company finds it bad investment." She said refusing to face him.

"I'm not my company." Tony said in a serious voice. He was more serious than ever. More serious than he was for stopping the weapon production, or being Ironman. Kids are not to be mess with.

Mildred turned around and looked at him, smirking.

"Well, well, if it's not for Mr. Stark." She said sarcastically.

"The very same." He answered.

It felt awkward. He really wanted to talk to her, meet her but what was there to say? He found himself being speechless.

"How can I trust you?" she said sizing him with her eyes.

"I am Iron Man." He answered smirking.

"That's a rather destructive announcement to make judging by the latest events." She said crossing arms in front of her, smirking back.

"Yeah, well…" Tony said taken aback. He wasn't used to people treating Iron Man as a destructive force, except for Pepper of course, and Rhodey, maybe the army, ok and the court of law but that was not the point.

"As much as I want to believe you allow me to be distrusting." She said and turned to leave.

"Well, if you got to know me better maybe you could trust me." Tony said smirking not giving the impression he liked.

"I'm not that kind of girl Mr. Stark, Good night." She said being obviously mad.

"No, no, no wait! That's not what I meant, I have a girlfriend, she's really hot, I mean pretty! She's really pretty and we have a stable-ish relation ship and I'm really trying not to screw it up." He said in one breath making her stop.

She looked at him giving him a chance.

"You said you can't change the world, but you are damn trying. Let me help you." He said looking deep down her eyes.

Mildred was in the middle of a dilemma. Should she trust him? Only God knows how much she wanted to meet Tony Stark and Iron Man, but was that enough? They were dealing with people's lives here.

"I've met you before you know. You had given a speech at MIT last year. I always wanted to meet you and… I have only one question." She said and Tony nodded.

"Do I get to see the suit?" she asked grinning making him smile.

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><p><strong>Please tell me what you think, I love reviews!<strong>

**Next chapter is on its way!**

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(It has both Greek and English stories.)


	2. Mr Almost Right Guy

The next morning came and Happy picked up Mildred from the orphanage to take her at the mansion in Malibu.

She walked inside alone admiring the building that had caught her attention from the moment she had arrived.

"Good morning, miss, you must be Ms Candlelight, Mr. Stark is expecting you." A voice was heard from nowhere making jump from surprise.

Mildred looked around searching for the one who had spoken.

"Uhm, yeah, I'm Mildred, who are you?" she asked walking carefully around looking for him.

"I am Jarvis, Mr. Stark's house manager." The cold voice of Jarvis answered.

"Ok, would you mind to come out now because you're freaking me out?" she said and heard a light laugh.

She turned around annoyed finding Tony grinning on her.

"What?" she asked.

"Jarvis is a computer, he runs the house." He said grinning even more at her face of realization.

"Oh, an Artificial Intelligence, cool! I want one." She said looking at the ceiling.

"Not yet." He said and walked towards the stairs.

Mildred followed him.

"You look very different today, Mr. Stark." Mildred said taking a good look at him. He looked more natural, relaxed, like he was in his element. Maybe he wasn't as arrogant and a rich boy as she thought.

"Good different or bad different?" he asked her.

"Good different." She said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Tony smiled as he opened the door. He didn't know why but hearing it from her it meant something and that made him happy. Not just happy like drunk happy or winning happy but genially happy.

"Call me Tony, I'll call you Mild, do you want coffee? Do you drink coffee?" he asked as he approached the kitchen bench.

"Yes, I drink coffee, no, thanks I don't want any and what the frack is this?" she said standing frozen wearing a look of amazement in her face.

"Oh, that's my workshop, do you like it?" he asked making a cup of coffee.

"It's… wonderful! I think I'm dreaming." She said and walked slowly towards the working bench, Tony following her explaining his current projects with his charm look on. Like showing off a new car or something.

"And that's your first arc reactor?" she said seeing the one Pepper had saved.

"Yes, uhm, you… uhm… probably." He said trying to hold back his yelling as she was touching every little thing she saw in front of her.

And then she stopped. Pause, silence. She was standing in front of the suits.

"Amazing." She said a bit louder than a whisper.

"Thank you." Tony said as he joined her, giving her a true smile. He liked showing off his achievements and he was doing it now a bit but something in her comment hold him back.

He didn't want her to admire him, of what he got she already did, and why not he was Tony Stark and Iron man, but what he wanted was her to trust him.

"Would you have thought to make the suit if you hadn't been captured?" she asked him taking him aback.

It was a question he never dared to ask himself because he knew the answer and he didn't like it.

"No." he answered looking at the suits.

"Captivity changes a man and even though many people were hurt and even killed…" he added and paused.

Mild looked at him waiting for his answer. She had got him out of his comfort zone, she could tell, but he needed that answer more than her.

"I would it again to preserve things as they are now." He said mostly to himself.

He didn't want anything to change. He didn't know how he would live if things went back to the way they used to be. Without purpose, without love.

"People don't change Mr. Stark." Mild said and it was Tony's turn to look at her distant eyes.

"We all got things hidden deep inside, some deeper than others but it comes a moment in everyone's lives that those things come to the surface. And it isn't always bad." She said facing him. His face was full of surprise and confusion.

So he was always good, that's what she's trying to say? Well, he had to have something for Pepper to stick around for so long. Professional or not, no woman would have stand all the things he had put her through.

"So, what now?" she asked him breaking the silence.

"What do you think of cars?" he asked her smirking.

…

As the days passed Mild was spending more and more time at Tony's workshop planning car upgrade or making new gadgets for the suit.

Pepper was happy that Tony had found something beyond risking his life every day that excited him.

He had taken the whole Lost Children's Home very seriously and he had already asked for a new home to be built.

Truth to be told things hadn't changed much on a daily basis and if she told the world that she and Tony Stark were having a relationship, no one would believe them.

But that was Tony, when he got something in his mind it would absorb him completely and she wouldn't want him any other day.

…

It was just one more day from those that Mild and Tony spent in the workshop, hidden from the sunlight, lost under a million of cables, circuits and computers. As they had reached a good level on their new circuit system for the L. they left Jarvis finish it and headed to the kitchen to get some lunch.

On the kitchen bench there were boxes of Chinese food and a note with Pepper's unmistakable handwriting.

"_Can't stay for lunch, got an important meeting. I love you."_

"Oh, look, Pepper brought us food." Tony said seeing the boxes and opened them enjoying the smell. It was still warm; it could not be long since she left.

"I thought she was the CEO of your company, not your P.A." Mild said grabbing two forks.

"Don't be absurd, she'll always be my P.A, I can't live by myself." He said and started eating.

Mild mimicked him for a couple of minutes but something was bothering her and she decided to speak.

"I've spent the last ten days practically living here and I've been calculating…" she said playing with her food.

"Calculating what?" Tony said with his mouth half full.

"You… and Pepper. She's your girlfriend." She said making him choke on his food.

Mild grabbed a bottle of water and helped him drink.

"Are you ok?" she asked and he nodded. She sat back on her seat and start playing with her food again.

"It's just, she's always here when I come in the morning and I'm sure she's stays long after I'm gone and I'm not blind or stupid…"

"No, you are not." Tony said mimicking her, separating his food.

"So, why do you spent your days in the dungeons with me and not with her?" she asked him.

The question didn't surprise him. He had seen it coming, maybe had thought of it himself one of those nights Pep stayed there and he had spent the whole night watching her sleep.

"Because… I'm trying to make things right and maybe you can't change the world on your own, but I can, and I want and she knows that." He said and he knew it was true. Pepper was proud of the man he had become and she knew how essential it was to him to make a difference.

"Not that you're afraid or anything." She said and Tony's eyebrow rose.

Ok, maybe he was a little afraid about the whole stable relationship with the woman of his dreams. Ok, maybe he was very afraid but he wasn't avoiding her, did he?

"You're going to lose her you know." Mild said casually catching his full attention.

The girl felt his eyes on her and continued her thought.

"She's stuck around for too long and if you don't do something she'll eventually get tired." She said and looked at him. He had turned white as the sheet; he definitely didn't like what he was hearing.

"It won't be your fault, or hers, it's just time that will get her tired and at her most vulnerable moment Mr.-Almost-Right-Guy will turn up and he will offer her a calm and safe life with a bunch of kids and a white fence cottage to make her almost happy because she will love him but she won't be in love with him and every night before she goes to sleep she will look at your picture crying asking herself why she can't be happy with her almost perfect life." Mild said in one breath mostly like telling a story.

Tony looked at her in silence but he wasn't seeing her. In his mind dozens of pictures were passing in light speed.

_Him in his suit coming back seriously wounded._

_Pepper crying. Pepper yelling. _

_The both of them having a fight._

_She's leaving. She goes to a bar, crying. _

_Mr.__-Almost-Right-Guy walks in._

_She laughs. She's standing in the alley of the church; she's in a kitchen with a bunch of kids trying to calm them down._

_Mr. Almost Right Guy coming with a kiss._

_Pepper working till late in the living room._

_Pepper in her nightgown walking towards the bed were Mr. Almost Right Guy sleeps._

_She's sitting at the edge of the bed taking a small box out of her drawer. She hesitates for a moment but opens it in the end. She takes a picture out of it and caresses it while silent tears fell of her eyes. With a sudden move she covers her mouth for her scream not to be heard. _

_She quickly hides the box back in the drawer, wiping her eyes as she hears Mr. Almost Right Guy turning around waking up._

"_You shouldn't be working that much, hon." He says in a sleepy voice. _

"_I know, go back to sleep." She says in her professional tone that hides her emotions from everyone. Everyone except him. _

"I don't like Pepper crying over me." He said blankly. He was still lost in those thoughts.

"Then you should probably do something about it." Mild told him.

…

It was almost ten o'clock when Tony looked away from his computer screen.

"Mild, can you handle me the…" he said but his phrase was left hanging in the air as he saw her sleeping in the chair across him.

"Ms. Candlelight fell asleep half an hour ago, sir." Jarvis informed him.

"I guess it was a tiring day. I'd better call Happy to take her home." He said standing up.

"Oh, please, sir, do not wake her up. Her voice frequency hurts my circuits and she's talking more than you if that's possible." Jarvis said in his cold tone.

"Jarvis, was that sarcasm? You taught you sarcasm?" Tony asked approaching Mild.

"You did, sir, you programmed me."

"I think it's time to re-program you." Tony said taking a good look at the girl.

She was covered with grease all over, like him, lost among an infinite number of gadgets. She looked pretty tired.

Maybe he shouldn't have gone so harsh on her.

But he really wanted to teach her a thing or two and it's not like he's interested in sharing his knowledge with people every day.

He likes showing off, but that was completely different. That was sharing his secrets and that was sacred to him.

Mild was the kind of person he wanted for his company and through Stark Industries she had a chance of leaving her mark on the world. A good mark.

He sighed and took her in his arms walking to the closest guestroom.

He put her on the bed and thought for a while.

She was covered with grease, she would ruin the bed and it really wasn't healthy to sleep covered in engine oils.

He shivered in the idea.

"Jarvis, what is the protocol of taking a girl's clothes off?" he asked his computer.

"I believe you know better than me, sir." The computer replied making him avert his eyes.

"I really need to re-program you." He said and stood there not knowing what to do.

He couldn't let her sleep like that but he couldn't take her clothes off!

Oh, God, here he was Anthony Edward Stark hesitating to take a woman's clothes off!

"Sir, Ms. Potts just entered the mansion." Jarvis said saving the day.

Tony ran to the living room hearing Pepper calling him.

"Peps, good! I need your help." He said taking her by the hand leading her to the guest room.

"It's not your arc reactor again, is it? Because I'm not…" she said

"No, no, it's not." He said whispering.

"But it would be fun." He added smirking.

"Tony!" Pepper yelled.

"I want you to take Mild's clothes off." He said making her drop her jaw.

"If it's one of your sick fantasies…" she said not even wanting to think about it.

"I want you to take her clothes off because she fell asleep at the workshop and she's covered in grease. It's not healthy to sleep in dirty clothes, Peps, and I can't remove her clothes…" Tony stopped mumbling seeing Pepper grinning.

She got in the bedroom closing her door behind her, not saying anything.

She got out a few minutes later letting Tony see that the girl was sleeping silently under the covers.

"Thank you." Tony said letting a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Pepper smiled and crossed her arms.

"I didn't know you could be shy." She said.

"I'm not shy." Tony defended him self.

"Oh, you're not." Pepper said teasing him.

"No, absolutely not but, you know, it was Mild, I'm not sure how to handle her while she's awake let alone asleep. If she opened her eyes while I was undressing her I could be lying dead right now." He whispered in conspiracy.

"But you're Iron man." Pepper said holding back her laughter.

"Yeah, well, I guess it's a bad thing I showed her how the suit works." Tony said making her grin even more.

"You are really trying." She said walking to the living room.

Tony sat next to her as she opened her laptop.

"She's been through a lot and I know how hard it is to lose your parents and mine were around until I was seventeen. Imagine losing them at four." He said shivering at the idea of a young kid being alone in the world. For some reason Oliver Twist gave him the same feeling.

Pepper grabbed his hand in understanding. He was a wonderful man, beneath the armor he had created for the rest of the world. She always knew that and losing his parents was one of the things that cost him more.

"Besides she's a marvel. I really think we should hire her." He added.

"Really?" Pepper said surprised.

"Yeah, she's exactly what our Science and Engineering department needs." Tony said lying back on the couch.

"Tony, you're our Science and Engineering department." Pepper said.

"I mean those losers that think they reproduce my brilliant designs." Tony said making her laugh.

Tony smiled. He loved it when Pepper laughed, especially because of him and it was the first real conversation they had had in days.

"Will you stay here tonight?" he asked her.

"No, Tony, I'm really tired." She answered and his conversation with Mild came in mind.

"Of me?" he asked her casually looking elsewhere.

"What?" she asked surprised. She couldn't have heard what she thought she did.

"Are you tired of me? The stress? This?" Tony asked rising from the couch but keeping his voice at casual tone.

"Because, you know, you've stacked around for too long and it's only normal to eventually get tired and leave with Mr. Almost Right Guy, get married, have a bunch of kids in a white fence cottage where you will be almost happy because you'll love him but you won't be in love with him and every night you will cry over my picture and I don't want you to cry over my picture and I don't want you to be almost happy, I want you to be fully happy and have a perfect life, 'cause you deserve it, Peps." He said in one breath most of his words making no sense to her.

"Tony, are you dying again?" she asked him terrified.

Tony froze and looked at her trying to understand her question.

"What? No!" he realizing what had happened. He looked at her for a moment watching her big blue eyes as they were trying to understand what had just happened.

"Come live with me." He said seriously.

It was Pepper's turn to frieze.

"Excuse me?" she said taken aback. That was a sentence she never thought it would come out of the lips of Tony Stark.

"You come here every day before I wake up and you leave just before I go to bed. You practically live here the last ten years, just save yourself the driving." He said.

Pepper was looking at him with her mouth agape, not knowing what to say.

"I got plenty of rooms, as you know, mine is the best and I got a big closet, big enough for your collection of high hills and my bed… oh, I've paid enough to make the most comfortable bed in the world." He said in a tempting voice to her ear.

"Are you asking me to move in?" Pepper said. It was all she could think about.

"You are a smart woman Ms. Potts." Tony replied smirking.

"I got an early meeting tomorrow, I need to go home tonight." She said taking a step back trying to earn just one night.

It wasn't she didn't want to move in with him, besides she had practically done it when she was hired, but it was different now and it was a big step. She needed time to think.

"You got a few suits in the guest room right next to my bedroom." Tony said approaching her dangerously.

"How do you know that?" she asked getting her voice in a new level. That was supposed to be a secret! She had things in there that Tony Stark should never find out about.

"Seriously, Potts, do you think there's one thing I don't know about you?" he said smelling her hair.

"Really?" she said playing along.

"Really, like how you just agreed to move in with me while trying to avoid me." He said while the lights were diming until only the blue light from his arc reactor remained.


	3. Breakfast at the Stark Mansion

**Thank you for your reviews! It's food for my writing worms!**

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><p>The morning light bathed the room as Tony was waking up. He stretched up rubbing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He exhaled and, as out of habit, he reached for the other side of the bed.<p>

It was empty.

His eyes snapped open in surprise. Pepper was gone. What…?

It wasn't like her to disappear. That was him, and that was a long time ago.

He took a look at the clock. It was seven o'clock in the morning. The time Pepper used to walk in his bedroom with a strong cup of coffee and a list of meetings he had to attend.

He really missed that.

Not the meetings, the whole on-the-verge-of- sexual-harassment-lawsuit game they used to play.

What was he thinking making her CEO?

Oh, right, palladium poisoning.

As those thoughts passed by his mind he buried his head in her pillow. It was still warm and smelled Pepper.

He took a look at the room. Things were pretty much as they had left them the previous night.

"Jarvis, where's Pepper?" he asked putting on a pair of boxers and a grey T-shirt.

"Ms. Potts is currently at the kitchen, sir, making breakfast." The computer answered and Tony walked out of the bedroom.

He walked on his nails like a cat approaching the kitchen. He used to do that a lot when he was a kid. He liked scaring his mum just like he likes scaring Pepper.

She had her back towards him making coffee while he stood there waiting like a hunter does its pray.

"Gotcha!" he yelled making her scream.

"Áááááááááááá! Tony! You scared the hell out of me!" she yelled punching him.

"Mission accomplished." Tony said smirking and gave her a light kiss.

"Morning, darling." He added and sat down grabbing a cookie.

Pepper turned around to finish whatever she was making.

"You know, I woke up and for a moment I thought your P.A would come and kindly kick me out handing me my dry cleaning." He said with his mouth half full.

"Not all CEOs are like you Tony." She said not bothering to face him.

"Besides why would I want to kick you out?" she added and handed him a cup of coffee.

Tony grinned from ear to ear.

"Who would fix my Blackberry? The one you stepped onto last night?" she finished showing him the ruined device on the kitchen bench.

"That's what I am to you? Mr. Fixes-All- Guy?" he teased her.

"That's why I make sure you're happy." She teased him back and gave him a kiss.

"I feel so used." He said looking disappointed but quickly smiled seeing a plate full of pancakes settling on the bench.

"Pancakes! You made me pancakes! I love pancakes but I don't get to eat very often. Why don't I get to eat pancakes very often? What's the meaning of being a zillionaire if you can't have pancakes?" he asked and took a large bite with extra syrup.

"You don't want to hire a cook, no one delivers pancakes and you wouldn't even think of making them yourself, that's why." Pepper replied taking a zip from her coffee.

"I got you for that. CEO, P.A, cook, friend, mother, lover…" he said giving a charming tone at the last word.

"What would I do without you, Potts?" he added and took another bite.

"You would perish." She answered.

"We all know that." He said smiling stealing a smile back from her.

A few minutes past as Pepper reads the paper obviously nervous she can't check her messages on the Blackberry.

Tony is more than amused by the way she glances at the destroyed device every once and a while and how she already calculates the meetings and the delays she's going to have during the day.

"So, are there any meetings you would like me to attend today, Ms Potts?" he asked her.

Pepper's eyes popped out and she froze at the question. Did she hear what she thought she did?

Oh, Tony was so going to enjoy it.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?" she asked him not believing her own ears.

"I think you should see a doctor, Potts, you seem to lose your hearing lately. I asked if there are any meetings you would like me to attend today." He said trying to hide his smirk and look normal.

"Tony, I'm going to ask you one last time and I want a straight answer." She said putting her cup away and looking him in the eye.

"Are you dying?" she asked him seriously.

Tony was trying so hard not to laugh. He loved teasing Pepper.

"No." he answered in the same tone.

"Jarvis." Pepper asked the computer but he too confirmed his master's saying.

"Are you serious? Oh, I get it, the suit finally got to your head and you've gone mental." She said in a worrying tone.

Tony couldn't help it anymore. It was way better than what he had imagined.

"Both my gorgeous body and my wonderful mind are in perfect health but if I'm going to you back to that bed any time soon I would do anything, even attend a meeting." He said grinning.

It was Pepper's turn to laugh. She hated when Tony teased her because she fell for it every time!

"You're stupid." She told him and punched lightly on the arm.

"That's why you love me." He said and kissed her. Just a light peck on the lips but that was Tony's favourite. Feeling her soft lips was no match for any passionate kiss.

"Well, as much as I appreciate your interest, Mr. Stark, there are no meetings for you today while I have, like, forty and I must be ready in half an hour." She said shifting in his arms to leave but he pulled her back down and smelled her hair.

"Are you going to have a shower?" he asked her deepening his voice making it irresistible.

"Yes, I am." Pepper replied coldly trying to compose her self. She hated when he did that. He knew she couldn't resist that voice and unfortunately he had found it out the moment she had entered his employment.

"Would you like me to shower with you? I could rub your back, I know how much you like me rubbing your back." He said seductively.

Pepper closed her eyes and let herself to get lost in his touch and his voice for just a moment. She could spare a moment but she would have to return to the reality soon after that.

"Something tells me that if you get in that shower with me I am going to be more than late." She said with her eyes closed before leaving his arms, this time for good.

Tony just stared at her, wearing one of his shirts and her black underwear.

Damn!

Pepper Potts could rap him around her finger by doing absolutely nothing.

"Uhm, aren't you forgetting something?" he asked and she stopped.

She walked back towards him pretending to think.

"Right, you could go and meet the constructor of the new Home." She said.

"As you wish, is that all?" he asked her in a puppy face.

She smiled and kissed him gently. She liked those kind of kisses because he had never kissed a girl like that and she knew she was special.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark." She said.

"And put a pair of pants on, we are not alone in the house." She said and spanked him as she was walking away.

Tony raised his eyebrows surprised.

"Jarvis, what just happened?" he asked the computer holding his mug on the air.

"I believe Ms. Potts should stop spending so much time with you, sir." The computer answered.

"That's it; I'm re- programming you." Tony said and headed to his bed room.

He picked up a pair of black jeans and a top and headed to the room next door.

If anyone got to open that room they would think it was just another unused guestroom in the Stark Mansion.

But Tony knew better. It was Pepper's room.

He opened the closet. Seven suits and casual outfits in dry cleaning bags stood there and two pairs of shoes, one high hilled and a pair of trainers.

He didn't know Pepper could walk in trainers; she wouldn't be able to balance.

He opened one of the drawers and found a few underwear and staff.

How could she even, for a moment, think he wouldn't find out? It was his home after all and it had started six years ago!

Six years!

He would get it even if he wasn't a genius.

It had started one night while she was working in his living room. Early morning visits had started from the very first day he had made her his P.A, it didn't take her long to make long night visits too.

But she had never spent the night there. Not until that night.

He had gotten out of his workshop at, like, two in the morning and he had found her sleeping on his couch with her laptop on. He hadn't been sure what he was supposed to do but she had been really tired.

God that woman was workaholic!

Even now, after ten years, she had never taken a day off! Never!

So, he had picked her up and placed her in the nearest bedroom, the one next to his. He had taken off her clothes and nothing had felt weird until he took a moment and watched her sleep.

He remembered feeling that click, and he had frozen. She was dangerous and he had known it from the beginning.

Of course the following day she had panicked, yelling at him that he had undressed her and he shouldn't have done it and being frustrated she hadn't had clothes to change and it had been too late to pass by her place, and what would everybody think seeing her in the same clothes while they new she started and finished her day at the Stark Mansion?

He had grinned back then and he was grinning now too.

It had been that day she had brought the first suit, and then another one until they became seven, one for every day of the week, a pair of pajamas and underwear.

The rest must have been brought while he was away, in Afghanistan.

His face fell at the thought.

What had she been doing those three months?

Had she been staying there? Sleeping in that very bed? Maybe in his bed?

He liked the second one for a reason.

He picked a suit, a black one, a pair of high hills and a pair of really sexy underwear.

Sexy underwear just next to his room? Naughty Potts.

He walked back in his bedroom as she was exiting the bathroom. He held up the underwear and said.

"I didn't know you could own such things, Potts. How come and you never wear them in bed?"

"You went through my closet?" she said with her eyes popped out and snatched them from his hands.

"After ten years of you picking up my closet I thought it was the protocol for the CEO to get their clothes picked." He answered

"You're clothes for me?" she asked thrilled.

"Why haven't I seen this suit on you, like, never? And why was it locked away along with those fantasy raising underwear?" Tony asked wickedly.

"Because its skirt is really small." Pepper answered.

"And hot along with these!" he said gesturing towards the undergarments.

"And they were just next door, open for me to find them!" he said flying his hands in the air.

"That room was locked." She said dead serious.

"You know I can pick any lock I want. How long have you been planning on seducing me, Potts?" Tony asked smirking.

"How long have you been picking at the drawers in the guestroom, Stark?" she asked him back smirking and took the clothes to the next room.

"What no dressing in my room?" he whined.

"It's the undressing you care about and no, if I want to make it on time." She said leaving.

Oh, she wasn't going to leave just like that. He wanted to tease her some more. He was really in the mood today.

"Jarvis, lock the front door until I'm out of the shower." Tony said.

"As you wish, sir"

Twenty minutes later Pepper walks to the front door ready to leave. Tony was on the shower and he hadn't fixed her blackberry so she would have to wait until she was in the company. And she hated that.

She tried to open the door but nothing happened. She tried again and again, various times but it just wasn't her day. The whole universe was telling her to stay where she was and enjoy another day at the arms of her wonderful Tony Stark… except of course if the universe was doing exactly what Tony had told it to.

"Jarvis open the door!" she yelled frustrated.

"Mr. Stark said to lock the door until he's out of the shower." The computer replied.

And of course Tony was the master of the universe.

"Tony, I swear to God, next time I will kill you!" she said angrily bursting into the bathroom while Tony was getting out of the shower.

"Changed your mind about that shower?" he said playfully.

Pepper rolled her eyes and handed him a towel to cover himself.

"Tony, I'm late!" she said shooting him a killing look.

"Two out of two, I'm on fire today!" he said picking up his toothbrush.

"Tony, please, tell Jarvis to open the door." She said giving up.

"Jarvis, unlock the door." Tony said.

"Done, sir." Jarvis replied.

"Thank you, Tony." Pepper said relieved.

"You're not mad at me are you? 'Cause I don't like it when you're mad at me, it usually means…" she shushed him with her finger and gave him a good bye kiss.

"Have a nice day, Mr. Stark." She said and left.

"Have a nice day, Mrs. Stark. He said and froze. "Potts, Ms. Potts. Have a nice day, Ms. Potts. Jarvis what just happened?" he asked his computer frozen in front of the sink.

"I am no programmed to analyze human psychology, sir, but I believe you just expressed a subconscious wanting or need." The cold tone of the computer answered.

"Oh, my God."

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	4. Hurtful memories

Tony walked into the guestroom he had placed Mild the previous night.

She was still sleeping, peacefully, like there was nothing in the world she should worry about.

Maybe there shouldn't be.

"I've tried, sir, but it seems to be more difficult to wake her up than make her stop talking." Jarvis said and Tony was surprised that the computer's loud and cold voice had no impact on her sleeping figure. Not even a move.

Tony circled the bed and came to stop right next to it. She looked like a child sleeping and a child she was just eighteen years old.

Well, he wouldn't say that a few years ago but Mild was just that. A big kid.

"Mild, wake up." He whispered above her head but she just turned around.

"Mildred, wake up." He said shaking her but she didn't respond.

"Ok, emergency measures. How do you wake up a kid?" Tony wondered.

"May I answer that from personal experience, sir?" Jarvis said making Tony avert his eyes.

"Jarvis, I swear to God I am this close to take your motherboard apart." He said bringing a bucket of water from the bathroom.

"Don't you think it is a little bit unorthodox, sir?" Jarvis asked him.

"They used to do it to me when I was in college and it worked just fine." Tony said and spilt the bucket on the sleeping Mild.

"Ah! What the heck? Tony, have you gone mental?" Mild screamed jumping off the bed.

"I hear that a lot lately and I'm really starting to worry." He replied skeptical.

"Where are my clothes?" she asked him seeing she was in her undergarments.

Tony froze making her white as a sheet.

"You little…" she said and started throwing at him everything within reaching distance.

"Pepper!" Tony screamed avoiding a pillow.

"You fell asleep at the workshop last night and I asked Pepper to remove your clothes 'cause they were dirty. You wouldn't want to sleep in dirty clothes, would you? Who would?" he said covering himself.

Mild calmed down and put the lamb away. She had been tired the previous night, it was true. They had spent hours and hours over that gadget and she was thankful those monitors hadn't burned her eyes.

"What, on earth, was that bucket about?" she asked him taking a look at her top.

"Jarvis was trying to wake you up, ineffectively, for the last fifteen minutes and we really need to meet someone." Tony said.

"We?" Mild asked surprised.

"Take a shower, your clothes are in the closet and come in the kitchen." Tony said walked out.

He had something very specific in his mind and Mild didn't like it. She didn't know him for long but she had found out that when Tony Stark put something in his mind that wasn't always good, for the rest of them.

Half an hour later Tony and Mild got in the Audi.

"It's a good thing you asked her to move in with you. It shows that you care." She said as she got in the car.

"You think?" Tony asked her and closed the door.

"Yes, you don't have to be 24-7 together; it's the little things that matter." Mild said and fastened her seatbelt.

"How do you know?" he asked her.

"'Cause I am a woman." Mild answered and Tony burst into laughter.

"You are not a woman, you're a child." He said.

"Oh, I can find you more than ten guys that can assure you I am a woman." She said searching around.

Tony froze at her statement. "I didn't have to know that." He said disgusted. It was an image he didn't want in his head.

"What are you looking for?" he asked her to change the subject.

"The second seatbelt." She replied.

"What second seatbelt?" Tony asked confused.

"Pepper told me that when you drive one seatbelt is not enough." Mild answered and made him laugh again.

"That's why when I drive I make sure Pepper has no seatbelt on." He replied and started the car.

….

One and a half hour later they reached the construction lot of the new L.C Home.

It was in a very nice location, near the sea with a lot of trees and enough space for a whole army to camp.

Tony and Mild walked out of the car and a man in a suit and a funny hat on his head approached them.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts told us you would pass by." The constructor said.

"Yeah, can't let you play with my money." Tony joked and looked around. Seemed like it was going as planned. Mild looked very happy.

"Where's the architect?" He asked the constructor and he showed them the way.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark." The architect said. He looked a little bit weirder.

"Morning, are those the blue prints?" Tony asked him.

"Yes, sir, let me show you." He said but Tony backed down.

"Oh, not to me, to her." Tony said bringing Mild on the front.

"Me?" Mild said surprised. What did she know of buildings?

"I don't know what those kids need, not even how many they are, you're the expert." He said winking at her and stepped away to make a few phone calls.

Mild was left alone with the architects and the engineers. For the first time in her life she felt awkward. She wasn't antisocial or something, on the contrary but something about deciding where and how hundreds of kids were going to live scared the hell out of her.

The surprised looks she was receiving from the construction team were nothing towards that.

She took the blueprints and the architect that had talked to Tony started explaining.

"Well, that's just wrong. Where's the drawing room?" she asked the man and he froze.

"Joke." She said and everyone smiled.

Tony joined them a few minutes later as they were getting to a deal.

"Is it what you want?" he asked interrupting them. Mild looked at the blueprints for a second and then nodded.

"Good, because once it's finished you are going to Stark-it-out." He said looking at the blueprints too. They were full of new marks and notes. Mild must have made her point.

"What?" Mild asked him not understanding but having a feeling that it had something to do with what she was thinking earlier.

"An Artificial Intelligence Computer, another Jarvis with all its programs, its functions, the monitors, like my place." He said walking away."

"Wait, me?" Mild said with her eyes popped out not believing in her ears.

She was right after all. What Stark had in mind wasn't good, for her.

"It's the only condition to built this." He said and her face changed in a sec going from surprised to fully angry.

"No, I'm kidding but make that a smart house and I've got a great reward for you." He said and walked to the car.

"Really? What kind of reward? No, wait, how am I supposed to make this thing?" she asked following him being stressed out already.

"I thought you just graduated M. I. T." Tony said challenging her.

"Yes, but…"

"Happy, will take you to your workshop…"

"My workshop?" she cut him off surprised.

"Yes, it has anything you need…" Tony said but was cut off again.

"I never had my own workshop." She said mostly to herself. It was something she always wanted so she could work without having to be worried that her projects were going to get ruined.

"If you make it, it's yours, for ever." He said and she froze. Tony smiled at her reaction. She was really taken aback.

"If you need anything, call me, but not at night, never call me at night, I'm busy." He said going back top his usual self.

"Thank you, Tony!" Mild said almost crying and hugged him tight. "No one's ever done so much for me." She mumbled in his shoulder.

Tony stood there holding her and he realized he liked it. Not liked it, like he liked hugging Pepper, a different kind of fondness. He was happy that made her happy.

Mild left him and he composed himself.

"I think… I'm changing your name; I'm going to call Hug, from now on." He said, got in his car and left.

Mild looked at Happy. She never got when he had arrived. He must have been one of Tony's phone calls.

"Happy is not your name." she said.

"I'm Hogan, miss." He said and opened the door to the car for her.

"Is there anyone whose name he hasn't changed?" she asked him looking to the way Tony's car had disappeared.

"His own, no wait, he's Ironman." Happy said making her smile.

…

Pepper was walking down the big hallways of the Stark Industries with Natalie following her sharp. It was like they were the best of friends but they had a very good professional relationship and she preferred having Natalie following her around the place than a bunch of bodyguards.

"Make sure you call Mr. Brown and cancel the meeting with Mrs. Barrow." Pepper said trying to bring some organize back to her schedule.

"Steve called from the Marketing department; he wants to talk to you." Natalie said while noting down what Pepper had said.

"Tuesday." Pepper replied sharp and opened the door to the conference room.

Both Natalie and Pepper froze at the sight before them. Instead of a dozen men in suits waiting, there were candles, roses, two plates and only one man in a suit with two glasses of wine in his hands.

"Tony, what are you doing here?" Pepper asked touching her head. She was on the verge of breaking down.

"Happy to see me?" he said kissing her cheek.

"Where are Mr. Beckerman and the council?" she asked as nicely as she could at that moment.

"Don't worry about them, it's taken care of." He replied.

"Taken care of? You didn't cancel my meeting, did you?" Pepper said frustrated. He had already messed her schedule with his morning jokes.

"No, I rescheduled it and before you start yelling about messing your schedule and everything I have to say, and, oh, I am very excited about it, Potts you just missed your meeting." Tony said grinning from ear to ear.

It had been a plan of the last minute but that was always the best.

Pepper's eyes popped out and Natalie was about to protest when Tony raised his figure to stop her.

"The meeting was half an hour ago. Nice man, Mr. Beckerman, he'll come back with a better offer. Hi, Nata… how should I finish it? We won't need you anymore, bye- bye!" he said and got out of the room closing the door behind her.

Pepper sat down confused and surprised.

"You mean you attended a meeting willingly?" she asked him not believing her ears.

Tony Stark had rescheduled a meeting, putting it earlier, and attended it alone and willingly, getting a better offer. Well, that last part was inevitable, people just cracked in his charm.

"I told you, I would do anything to get back in my bed soon, wine?" he said giving her a glass.

"Did you have lunch? You didn't have lunch, I'm sure you didn't, lunch is a meal you shouldn't skip and that's why I made, pasta!" Tony said presenting two plates of tempting pasta.

"You mean, you actually made this?" she asked him.

"Well, I tried but then I convinced myself I didn't want you to get food poisoning."

"I love pasta." Pepper said smiling.

"I know it." Tony replied grinning.

Lunch was going good. They ate and they talked and they laughed. They had both missed that. After what had happened at the Expo and between them and the whole Tony dying thing, they didn't have the chance of being like the old days when they would sit at the couch with a pizza and he would watch TV and was trying to distract her from her laptop.

That wasn't exactly the case there but a more romantic touch was a good break every once in a while.

"So, what's your favourite colour?" Tony asked her out of the blue.

"I thought there wasn't a thing you didn't know about me." She said taking a zip from her wine.

"Yeah, well, I want to hear it from you." Tony said.

"Red." She finally said making him grin.

"What's your worst colour?" he asked.

"Red." Pepper answered right away.

Tony cocked his head on the side looking at her confused.

"I think you should listen to me when I talk, Pepper." He said.

"I do, Tony, and I answered both your questions." She said.

"How can red be both your favourite and worst colour?" Tony asked flying his hands on the air.

Pepper took another zip from her wine and answered not looking at him.

"It's my favourite colour because red is the colour of your suit and it reminds me of the man you really are." She said making a pause.

"And it's my worst colour because red is the colour of your blood that I am afraid I'll see in every inch of your body the next time you'll be back from a mission." She added and she was more serious than ever.

Tony's face fell. Pepper was the superhero's girlfriend worrying all the time, he knew that, but there were times it was killing her and he felt responsible for that.

"We never talked about my time in Afghanistan." Tony said looking at his plate just like Pepper did. The talk had taken a serious turn but he felt it was something they had to do. He had been thinking it for a long time but he was afraid of what he would hear. He would rather a story where Pepper had actually been doing job hunting and kept on with her life than what was more likely a very heartbreaking story.

Pepper looked at him, taken aback. He never spoke of it, like it had never happened and the whole Ironman thing had come to him at his workshop. She had never asked him. She didn't want him to relive those awful moments, she didn't want her to relive those awful moments. The image of Tony bitten and tied up in a chair with several guns on his head was something that would never leave her memory.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she finally asked him touching his hand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" tony asked her back looking at her. It was a hard topic for both of them.

"I have nothing to say." Pepper said suddenly becoming professional.

"You can't hide from me Potts, what were you doing those three months?" he asked her. He had to know, she had to know. There was a big gap they had to fill, things that needed to be said.

"What did you do those three months in that cave?" Pepper asked back.

"One for one?" Tony offered

"You first." Pepper said.

…

"I didn't want to go to Afghanistan. I have never been superstitious, I am not, but going there just didn't feel right. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and that's why I didn't go with Rhodey. On our way to the basis we were attacked. Shots and bombs everywhere, it was horrible. I tried to shoot a gun, to protect myself but it had stuck. I hid, I saw one of our missiles landing right next to me and then… nothing. I remember hearing someone say my name, a light, a gun but nothing specific." Tony said.

"It was the video they sent Stane to tell him he hadn't paid enough for them to kill you." Pepper explained looking down.

"You turn." Tony said.

Pepper took a deep breath and started.

"It was night when Rhodey called me, I was sleeping. At first I thought you had done something stupid like a belly dance party in the middle of the desert or something…" she said and he smiled. He would have done it if he hadn't been captured.

"Then I heard words like, 'Tony', 'missing', 'kidnapped', 'terrorists' and I felt like the world just stopped. I remember leaving my house in the middle of the night, driving all the way to the mansion hoping to find you there working in your workshop or even atop of a blond bimbo but of course the house was empty. I thought that Rhodey must have gotten it wrong, that you wouldn't be home anyway and it was all a big misunderstanding but then… I got like a hundred phone calls by reporters asking me if the rumors were true and… I felt lost." Pepper said and Tony squeezed her hand. He always thought reporters were demons dressed in human skin.

"I woke up in a cave with a car battery attached to my chest. There was a guy, Yinsen, he saved my life and explained me what had happened. Apparently the missiles I had designed for total destruction were working perfectly, unfortunately on me.

They wanted me to built them the Jericho Missile, I didn't want to but they would kill me and honestly I thought I was perfectly fine with it until that gun pointed at me and a certain thought came to my mind." Tony said.

"What?" Pepper asked

"You." He said and looked at her. "I didn't want your last memory of me to be escorting a bimbo out of my bed and me forgetting your birthday. That's why I bought some time." He said.

"How did you think to make the arc reactor?" Pepper asked him.

"I had to carry a car battery everywhere I went. It wasn't a nice thing." He said but of course there were more.

"The first few days I was really numb. I was going conference after conference, talking to reporters, calming down clients and everything was pretty much just like every time you did something stupid. I don't think I had any time to think and realize what exactly had happened. It must have been somewhere around the second and third week that I came to the mansion looking for some papers and out of habit I called you. You didn't answer, Jarvis was off, I walked down at the workshop and everything was exactly as you had left it. For a moment I thought you may never come back and that the hot rod may never be finished and… I broke down. Oh, my God, I think I pent two days down there crying…" Pepper said sniffing and Tony cut her to give her a break.

"Yinsen had a family. He had asked me what I had that I wanted to return for. I thought about cars, money, women and nothing seemed to worth it. Then I thought about you. I couldn't abandon you. I wrote a letter saying how much you mean to me, that you are all I had and all I had would be yours after my death." Tony said and Pepper covered her mouth in surprise.

"You did what?" she said in a high pitched voice. What was he thinking? She wanted him back not his money or company!

"I had to know you would have a good life as you deserved, Peps that you would know what you really meant to me. There was only one person that could bring that letter here and that was Yinsen. He had two reasons to escape and I had none. I could take the risk and help him escape. I was consent I would be the one who would die there but instead…" Tony stopped lost. Yinsen's sacrifice for a man that he barely knew that had built the weapons that had killed his family always got to him and it was what inspired him to become Ironman.

"I stopped going home, it didn't feel right. When the reporters stopped asking about you I felt there was no going back. You would never come back and I wasn't consent with that. I stayed in the guestroom making sure everything would be ready for you when you came home; even if it took you fifty years. I don't know how but one day I woke up in your bed and it felt like you and I remember thinking, _He's Tony Stark, how can they think he won't come back? He'll walk out of the airplane flirting with a female officer and he'll go to the casino his first night back." _Pepper said.

"They got us. The terrorists got what we weren't building the missile. The suit needed a few minutes to be programmed. Yinsen left saying he would buy me some time. They killed him, he died. I was supposed to be the one who would die and Yinsen would see his family again and would travel here to bring you the letter. His family was dead. Probably by my weapons. He wanted to die, to help me find a meaning to my life.

I walked in the desert for days trying to survive, to prove Yinsen right. When I saw Rhodey the first thing I asked was about you. 'She thinks you're dead, Tony.' He told me and I cursed myself for taking that long to escape. They took me to a hospital delaying my return for almost a week, maybe more, I have no idea. I was hurt and I couldn't talk. When Rhodey called you I could hear you yelling and then laughing and it made my soul fly." Tony said captivating her eyes giving her a light smile.

"I thought you were dead because that's what they told me so. They couldn't find you, not even a proof of life but it was ok, because I had faith in you. Then one morning I turned the TV on and I heard they had found your body in the desert, tortured to death that they couldn't recognize you. They had your clothes and your watch, the one I gave you for Christmas and…" but Pepper couldn't take it any more, all that emotion coming back and she burst into tears. Tony buried her in his arms trying to calm her down.

"I locked myself in your bedroom, not sure for how long and calling Rhodey was the last thing that came in my mind. The phone never stopped ringing but I couldn't answer it, I was afraid they would only confirm you were dead." She mumbled in his shoulder.

"That's why you weren't answering your phone." Tony said understanding now why it had taken Rhodey so long to find her. Poor Pepper.

"Thank God, I had turned Jarvis on and he took the situation under control answering the call without asking me. To tell you the truth at first I thought that it was all a bad joke, that someone was playing with me but then you talked…"

"'Hey, Potts' is not much of a talking." Tony said caressing her hair making her smile a bit against his chest.

"It was enough and when I saw you sitting on that wheelchair I thought, 'oh, God, it's worst than I imagined' but then you came out all usual Stark and I knew you were ok." Pepper said leaving his arms, caressing his cheek.

"I had prepared a speech for you. I had thought hundreds of scenes seeing you again, some were sad, hurting, professional, some were dirty I admit but when I actually saw you, I chickened out. Your eyes were red, you had been crying and I knew things hadn't been ok." Tony said being really serious.

No one, not even him, had the right to hurt Pepper Potts.

"You're here now and I wouldn't change you for the world." Pepper said smiling at him.

"Not even when I drive like crazy and have blocked your seatbelt?" Tony asked with a puppy face on.

"No." Pepper answered smiling.

"Not even when I flirt with other women?"

"Now…"

"Interrupting your meeting?"

"Don't push it, Stark." Pepper said and kissed him.


	5. Revelation

**Thank you for your reviews! I hope you enjoy the story as much as I do!**

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><p>It had been going on for days; the whining, the yelling, the frustration. Mounts of papers with complains by the employees of the first floors about the noise coming from the basement.<p>

At first she had sent security to check out but apparently they were not authorized to enter that part of the Stark Industries. It didn't take her long to find out what was going on down there and ask Tony to solve it. However her genius and superhero boyfriend seemed lost in his thoughts lately. Truth be told they saw each other less now that they were living together than when he was just her employer.

She had moved in his bedroom and he had moved to his workshop. Should she worry about it?

No, of course not. It was just Tony, being… well, Tony. If a new idea had popped out into that brilliant head of his he wouldn't sleep, wouldn't eat or drink until he had it done.

Yes, that was Tony Stark, ladies and gentlemen.

So, she had to deal with the whole thing all by herself, as always. She walked down there alone. If she had a chance to get Natalie off her back for a while she wouldn't let it pass by.

She took the stairs to get to the basement and for some weird reason everything looked very familiar. Behind the heavy, steel security door laid a wooden stair that led to a workshop protected by a huge glass. It was dark with pinches of blue, monitors everywhere, gadgets, cables tools everywhere. It was like Tony's workshop had moved there only it wasn't Tony with his gloves and cargoes working on the bench, it was Mildred.

Pepper typed her code and the door opened turning down the same loud and noisy music that conquered the mansion's basement too. The music being the source of the problem.

"Hey!" Mildred yelled turning around and Pepper truly expected to receive a whine like Tony's but instead she got a very calm, almost indifferent, "I would prefer you wouldn't turn off, my music Ms. Potts."

Mildred was not Tony. She acted like him, that was true, being a little bit selfish, not really caring what other people thought, listening to heavy metal, focusing to death to their projects and having a unique talent in creating chaos.

Pepper took a moment and watched her work around the workshop. Her shoes were untied.

However, Mildred was not arrogant and she definitely was not Tony. She blamed the resemblance to the fact that she had spent too much time with him lately or that maybe all geniuses were like that.

"I don't usually get visitors down here, is there a reason you came?" Mild asked her snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, Mildred, I know what Tony told you about doing whatever you want down here but there are other people in this company too and they have been complaining about the loud music and the noise coming from here." Pepper said.

"I work here, Pepper, I can't work in silence. I am a mechanic not a freaky accountant!" Mild said walking around the bench throwing her hands up in the air.

That was a pure Tony moment.

"As for the music," she added, "I DON'T work without it. It's the music and me, me and the music, mind, we work as one." She said giving her an end-of-discussion look.

Tony's end-of-discussion look. That was weird.

"Ok." Pepper said sighing knowing it was a battle she couldn't win. She had tried before, with another genius mechanic but it had been a Waterloo to her.

"Please, promise me you will try to keep it quite down here until I get this thing soundproofed?" Pepper asked already typing at her Blackberry.

"I'll try." Mildred said sending her a dazzling, Cheshire grin.

Tony's image came automatically in her head. She reminded her of him so much and her eyes…

Oh, stop, Potts!

"Thank you." Pepper said and turned to leave but something kept her there.

It was a sleeping bag.

"Don't tell me you live here?" she asked her.

"I live here." Mild said casually.

"You can't live here, it's a company, it's a dirty workshop! You can't work here all day, cutting off wires and assembling metal and then sleep in a corner! We got to get you a home, don't got a home? Where did you stay?" Pepper asked her.

"On the streets." Mild answered shrugging her shoulders making Pepper's eyes pop out.

"Just kidding." She added smiling. "When I left M.I.T I went back to the L.C. Home but I'm too old now and there are kids that need a roof over their heads more than me. Since Tony said I could have this if I win the challenge, which I will, let's face it, I am Mildred Melanie Candlelight, I grabbed the chance. It needs a couple of things but it will be fine." Mild said showing Pepper a small bathroom, a half finished bedroom and of course, a kitchen bench.

"Challenge, what Challenge? Did Tony challenge you at making something? What are you making?" Pepper asked taken aback from all those new information.

"Can't tell you, it's classified; tell you and I lose Tony's rules." She replied.

"Tony's rules." Pepper repeated.

"Yeah, to whom, by the way, I've sent like a zillion messages and he has answered none. He was the one who told me to ask him if I had any questions. Is he even alive?" Mildred asked her taking a zip from a Starbuck's coffee cup Pepper wasn't sure how many days it had been there.

"That's a question I can't even answer." Pepper said lost on her thoughts about Mild's resemblance to Tony, the challenge, Tony's disappearance in his workshop.

"Time's up, I have a meeting and you're not staying here. Happy is taking you to my place." Pepper said returning to reality and heading to the door.

"Oh, come on now!" Mild whined.

"I don't want to find your dead body at the basement of the company eaten by rats." Pepper said.

"Rats are man's best friend!" Mild yelled at her back as she was leaving.

"You're staying at my house until this thing gets cleaned up and soundproofed, period." Pepper said not looking back.

"Love you, Potts!" she heard Mildred yelling before closing the door behind her.

…

Days passed but Pepper couldn't get it out of her mind. Mildred's resemblance to Tony. She had told herself to forget about it, that it was only a coincidence but she just couldn't let it go.

"Hey, gorgeous." Tony said bringing her back to reality.

"Decided to get out of the lab?" Pepper teased him. He was in there for god knows how many days.

"Three, Ms. Potts." Jarvis said. Had she said that out aloud?

"Well, actually I finished what I was working on and I thought that maybe you would like to go out for dinner." Tony proposed.

"I'm very tired to deal with curious reporters, Tony, I'm sorry." Pepper said closing the laptop's lid.

"Point, hm, how about… a flight, then?" he said grinning. Pepper looked at him surprised.

"Come on, Peps, don't tell me you don't want to fly with Iron man." He said.

"Oh, I have already done that and I didn't enjoy it, thank you very much." Pepper replied.

"That wasn't a flight, that was a rescue. Don't tell me you don't trust me. Are you afraid of heights, Potts?" Tony said challenging her. It was the best way to get at her.

"I'm not afraid of anything!" she defended herself.

"Then?" Tony asked her.

"I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Ok, be ready in ten minutes and wear that blue dress I bought you for your birthday." He said and jumped off the couch.

"Actually, I bought that and I really, don't…"

"Ten minutes, Potts!" he yelled walking downstairs.

It was a fight Pepper couldn't and didn't want to win.

California was magnificent from up above.

They landed at the last place she would ever think; at the roof of Disney hall.

Tony's new suit system helped him out of it and formed a case leaving him in his tuxedo. Out of nowhere a waiter came caring a disk with two drinks.

"Vodka Martini, extra dry, extra olives like at least three." Tony said handing her a glass. Pepper frowned confused. What was going on?

"Tony, what are you doing?" Pepper asked him.

"I didn't left you alone on the roof that night, Peps, it just took me a while to come back." He said and added. "Cheers!" he said and took a zip. Pepper mimicked him.

Suddenly music started, a familiar song playing. Was it the one they had half danced?

"Will you dance with me now, Potts? No one is watching." Tony said offering his hand.

She smiled shyly and took it. Everything looked so weird, like every time she touched him it felt like the first time.

"Every time I touch you I think it's the first." She whispered in his ear.

"That's good; it means you will never get tired of me." He replied.

She looked up, leaning to kiss him but he stepped away. She looked at him confused.

"Tony?" she asked him.

"I thought this is where I first saw you, but as Hug says, people hide things deep inside them that eventually come to the surface." Tony said looking around.

Pepper followed his eyes trying to understand.

"I believe now that that's what happened to me and I know ten years is a long time but I got a problem, let's face it, I am emotionally immature and I will probably never say I love you…"

"You just did." Pepper interrupted him smiling.

"Yeah" he said grinning and handed her a piece of paper.

"Probably the only time I confessed what I felt. I thought you should read it." Tony said as she opened it.

"_Afghanistan, 2008, not sure about the day_

_I, Anthony Edward Stark, am writing this letter as my last will because I'm not sure I'll get out of here alive._

_As everyone knows I have no heir as I'm the last of my family. So, I give my collection of cars, except the hotrod, the Roles Royce and the limo to Happy Hogan, my driver and good friend. _

_To Obadiah Stane whom I think of as my second father I give my Nude collection he so enjoys._

_Last, to Virginia "Pepper" Potts, I give everything else including the device attached to my chest if my body is ever to be found. Its designs are with the carrier of the letter. _

_She's the only one I can trust it with because, I think it's time to face it, she always ran my heart as well as my company. It took me a while to realize it but I think I've got it right now. For years I've been wondering how, I , Tony Stark, the one who women fell where I step, lost my words in her glare, smiled at her laugh and gave in, in every little thing she asked. I even sound proofed my workshop, twice, because she couldn't work; something I always thought she could do in her apartment rather at my place so I've been hopeful that Pepper Potts has at last succumbed to me._

_Never really knew why I was happy with that idea except from my ego, but she puts up with me even when I act like the worst bastard in the world and I never apologize. I don't mean it, I'm self destructive and I'm afraid she'll leave me some day to go and have a perfect life she surely deserves. I wish I could change, to be the one offering that but I don't trust me. I would screw it up within the week._

_I can make sure she wouldn't have to worry about loans or job hunting any more, though. I could rest in peace knowing that she will do everything right with my father's company and she'll make sure no one gets hurt by our weapons anymore._

_I know she will, just like I know she needs a really strong coffee to wake up in the morning because she's a bad waker and that's because she's always tired, mostly by me. Her hair go crazy when she wakes up, getting very curly somehow. She thinks I don't see her when she sleeps over and she acts purely professional which makes me both laugh and fantasizing._

_She loves pasta and she's allergic to strawberries. Oh, I want to apologize about that time I made you eat strawberry marmalade without you knowing. It was foolish of me but I didn't know you were allergic, I thought you were just being weird._

_She has two weaknesses; high hills and stuffed animals._

_I know her just as she knows me. She's all I have and I give her what truly belongs to her because in my mind she's Mrs. Stark._

_I love you Peps and you may never hear that from me._

_A. E. Stark."_

Pepper stopped reading fighting really hard not to cry. Not sure why but she was getting really emotionally lately.

She looked up and saw Tony holding a velvet box with a ring inside it.

A golden ring with a red rock.

"So what do you, say?" he asked her obviously nervous.

Pepper was taken aback. Was he doing what she thought he was doing?

"Tony, are you proposing me?" she had to ask.

"Yes." Tony said serious. He was very stiffed, he could have a stroke by his anxiety!

"I don't know what to say." Pepper said surprised. She had dreamed of this moment a lot of times but it seemed like too much too soon.

"Yes, say, yes. You can also say I do, oui, you can use any phrase, word or language you want only make it a positive answer." Tony start mumbling.

Pepper smiled at him and captured him in a passionate kiss.

"Was that a yes?" he asked recovering from the kiss.

He could so adorable.

"It was a definitely I- would- take –you- even- if – you- were- just – a- Tony- and –the –only –thing –that- had-returned-from- Afghanistan- was-your- smile." Pepper said and caressed his cheek.

"It's a good thing then that I'm Tony Stark and my smile didn't return alone." He whispered in her ear and put the ring around her finger.

"It's very beautiful, it matches your suit." Pepper said.

"It calls it too. If your like in danger you push the rock and I'll be there before you can say Arc Reactor." Tony said pushing the rock and a red light came from his chest. It was a locker.

"You mean you made this?" she asked surprised.

"Where do you think I've been for three days?" he said got his locker out.

"And because we are both too busy and there are times we don't even see each other…" he said and got another locker from his pocket.

"Stroke that and I'll know you miss me." Tony said and stroke his making Pepper's locker get really hot.

"Tony, I have no words." She said amazed. "You never cease to amaze me, Mr. Stark." She added.

"Oh, wait and see what comes next and don't say no, please." He said and kissed her fingers leading her to the elevator.

"What kind of surprise?" Pepper asked

"Let's just say I want to test Jarvis driving skills." He said smirking.

"Tony." Pepper said wickedly.

…

So now they were engaged and it was Tony's idea to keep it a secret. There were only a million reporters waiting to spoil their lives and five hundred super villains that already targeted Pepper. So a secret it was and talking about the wedding itself was more than Pepper thought Tony could handle for the next few months.

Their routine came back, meetings, missions and the new sound proofed workshop of Mildred's that brought peace and silence in the company again.

Mild

Pepper's mind had been off of it for a while but as she came across a few papers for the L.C. H her thoughts came back. Tony and Mild had agreed against her will to make a secret entrance to the Hug Lab, as tony was referring to it and make it a worth living place. That was after Tony offered to buy her a beach house of course and she had refused. Just as Pepper had but the more she saw them together…

Could Mildred be Tony's daughter?

No! She was too old. Well, not that old actually if you thought what Tony had said about his first time and Mild being eighteen. He could have had her around the same age. On the other hand Mild had had parents.

Oh, like she couldn't have been adopted!

_Stories she had to believe were true._

Oh, Potts, you crazy woman! What you think is absurd! Is it?

She finally made a mental not to at least go for it just to be sure.

…

It was Sunday morning and Pepper walked to Tony's workshop holding a cup of coffee. He had been up all night working on the arc reactor. Something about ending wars.

"Good morning." She said handing him the cup.

"Coffee, love you, Peps." He said kissing her.

"Sorry, I didn't come to bed last night but Mild gave me this idea…" He added

"Mild?" Pepper said.

"Yes, oh, she's really brilliant. Almost as good as me, not better, no one is better than but I'm acknowledging her brilliance. We definitely have to hire her, arrange it." he said and switched on a big screen were Mild was saying Tony something about the arc reactor and showed him some designs. Obviously a recorded message.

"How exactly does the arc reactor work? Can it handle something big, like a house? Is it safe? Just because it's attached to your chest doesn't mean it's safe 'cause let's face it, you're destruction itself. But, I was thinking, what if we could replace every energy source? No more environmental pollution, oil wars…" Mild's voice echoed in the workshop.

Pepper's phone rang and she answered it as Tony went back to work.

"I see, ok, ok, thank you very much." She said and hanged up.

"Who was it?" Tony asked.

"Tony, we need to talk." Pepper said and sat down.

"I don't like it when you say that. When you say we need to talk, it means you want me to listen and what I usually hear it's not good, for me." Tony said wiping his hands with a rag and turned on his stool to face her.

"It depends on how you'll take it." She said glancing at the screen where Mild was still talking at mute.

"Do you know a woman called Missy Summers?" she asked him.

"Whatever she told you, I haven't been with another woman since we've been together." He said defending himself.

"No, no, Tony, she's dead. She died eighteen years ago. She was from Toronto, have you ever been to Toronto?" she asked him, already knowing the answer.

"Pepper, I've been all around the world but I don't get where this is going." Tony whined. Something was not right. Usually when Pepper had something to say she said it straight away, no introductions or anything.

"Maybe I started from the wrong end." She said and sighed.

"What do you know about your parents' death?" she asked him.

"It was a car accident." He answered right away but Pepper gave him that look that said think twice.

"It wasn't a car accident." Tony said confused and then it hit him. "Stane?"

Pepper nodded.

"Stane wanted the company for himself from the moment it had been established to the financial and military world. Your father was in the way." She explained.

"But I was left behind, why didn't he kill me too?" Tony said not believing his ears. Thinking what Stane had done it wasn't hard to believe but still…

Pepper took a deep breath. She had discovered a lot of things lately that even she couldn't believe, let alone Tony.

"He needed you, he knew you would take the company to a whole new level which you did because you're brilliant. He also knew your destructive side and did everything to enhance it making sure you would be the last Stark."

"No one would be surprised if I died jumping off a roof drunk." Tony murmured.

"He only tried to make it more dramatic, raising the company's number's no doubt." He added thinking about the way he had tried to kill him. Hiring terrorists to kidnap him.

"There's more. You weren't the only one in Stane's way." Pepper said.

"What do you mean?" Tony asked confused. It never ends, does it?

"You weren't the last Stark." She said and Tony jumped off his stool, his eyes popped out of his scull.

"What!" he yelled. What was that? She was kidding right?

"Missy Summer's kid was an heir too." She said prepared for his shock.

"My father had another child?" Tony said lost. How could it be? He never thought his father and he had any real relationship but he adored his mother, he knew it! He would never cheat on her!

"No, Tony, not your father." Pepper said and he sighed in relief. He knew. But if it wasn't his father then who was it?

Tony looked at Pepper confused and then his eyes became as big as sausage plates.

"You mean I… I… I have a kid?" he asked her not believing his ears.

* * *

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	6. The two Starks

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><p>Tony was lost. His face had become as pale as a piece of sheet and his eyes couldn't focus. Pepper was afraid for him. She knew it was too much for him and they hadn't even gotten to the best part.<p>

"Tony, are you alright?" she asked getting up to help him. He was on the verge of having a panic attack!

He nodded and took a zip from his coffee to get some strength back.

"Continue." He breathed out and sat back on his stool.

Pepper looked at him making sure he was ok before sitting back on her chair.

"Missy Summer's got as far as Stane. She told him she was pregnant and that her child was to be the heir to the Stark Industries. Of course, as you understand, Stane couldn't have another obstacle in his way. He had to get rid of it. He gave her a check to keep her mouth shut and to get rid of the child. She had no intention of doing either but unfortunately she died giving birth. The kid disappeared 'mysteriously'." Pepper said seeing Tony staring at the floor trying to take in the new information.

"I have a kid and Stane just… for so many years… It's unbelievable." He said bringing Obadiah Stane in his mind. He had been there for him, when he lost everything, when he got something back. He had been like a father to him all those years, telling him not to worry, that family was not for him.

He had ripped every chance of happiness off of him.

"Where's the child now?" Tony asked. What has been done cannot be undone but he had a chance to start over. He had done it before.

Pepper gave him an intense look not answering. How do you say a thing like that? She had rehearsed it multiple times, in multiple ways but now that the time had come she had frozen too.

She raised her head and looked at the big screen behind Tony. Mild's video had been paused and the image of the young girl was staring at them excited.

Tony followed Pepper's eyes and stared at the screen confused. He was a smart man; he didn't need a neon sign to understand.

Realization hit him and his eyes became as big as sausage plates. It couldn't be, could it? He looked back at Pepper for a sing and she just sighed.

What twisted kind of game had fate played on him? Being so near to her and not having a clue.

"The Candlelights adopted her when she was still a new born. All their children were." Pepper explained trying to bring him back to reality.

"Did Stane have anything to do with the fire in their house?" Tony asked her clenching his fists. He had that look on his face, the look of an avenger.

"I don't know. I couldn't get that far." She answered.

Tony looked back at the screen. He had a daughter, a brilliant, beautiful daughter and it wasn't just any brilliant, beautiful daughter, it was Mild!

"She has your eyes." Pepper said smiling.

"My mother's eyes." He said and the screen dropped to his eye level for him touch the frozen image.

"I can't believe what she's been through and for what? A bunch of money?" He said not understanding how could anyone be so cruel and cold? What value did money have towards the happiness of a child?

Pepper caressed his back and rested her head on his shoulder. It had gone better than she expected.

"I can't believe Hug is my daughter." He said and a loud noise caught their attention.

There, at the garage door stood Mildred white as a piece of sheet with her eyes popped out and her hands hanging in the air. In front of her, a box had fallen.

"Mildred." Tony said using her full name for the first time.

The girl looked back and forth between Tony and Pepper confused. She must have got it wrong. She couldn't be the daughter of Tony Stark. She had had parents and they were dead now. They were just teasing her.

"Mild." Tony said in the same tone, almost pleading as he tried to approach her.

Mild looked at him not able to believe. It couldn't be true, it couldn't!

She mumbled a few words and ran away scared and lost.

Tony looked at Pepper frightened but she just smiled at him.

"Go." She said.

…

Tony couldn't understand how a person can disappear into thin air because that's what had happened to Mild. She had disappeared the moment she left his garage. He had looked everywhere, called everyone even the police but she had just vanished from the face of earth.

They decided to wait. Pepper told him she needed time. Her whole world had come crashing down. Everything she knew, everything she was, had been a lie.

So they waited, for weeks but she never returned. She didn't even go back to her workshop. Everything was just as she had left them; like she was still there and that hurt Tony the most.

….

It had been more than a month since the incident at the garage that Tony received a phone call from an anonymous source. Someone had seen her in a night club.

He took the car and got there in a blink of the eye. He got in looking for her keeping in mind what Pepper had told him.

_Don't scare her away._

He decided to go for the bartender. They always knew the answers to your questions.

He got a hundred from his pocket and caught the bartender's attention.

"May I help you sir?" the man asked.

"I'm looking for a girl named Mildred Candlelight. She's about this height, with brown hair and dark eyes." Tony said.

"She's on the back." The man said and snatched the money from Tony's hand.

Tony rounded the bench and headed to the back scanning the place. It didn't take him long to find her.

She was there but she was not his Mild. She wasn't the genius mechanic kid in her jeans and All Stars. She was a woman, one he refused to accept, in a tight, hot dress and super high hilled shoes rapped around a six feet punk. His tongue was sliding inside her mouth and his hands were all over the wrong places… on his Mild!

His girl! His little girl!

He tried to think clear but he just couldn't and wouldn't. He walked full of range and anger. She was better than that. She deserved better than that.

He grabbed her arm taking away from him and gave the guy a really strong punch. He may have broken his jaw. The young man tried to fight back but Tony Stark was not to be defeated suit or not.

He left the poor guy trying to recover from his hits while he dragged Mild out ignoring her protests.

"What was that?" Tony yelled at her once they were out.

"What the hell did you do in there? What were you thinking?" Mild yelled back.

"That's what you want to do for the rest of your life? Getting drunk and laid?" he yelled even harder.

"Like father, like daughter." Mild said crossing her arms.

God! She looked exactly like his mother.

He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down. Maybe his approach had been wrong.

"Millie." He said in a calm almost pleading tone.

"Oh, we got a new nickname, don't we? Let me tell you something; you can't come here and play father to me when you didn't even know I existed a few days ago. You are NOT better then me." She yelled.

"I'm trying to make this right. I'm sorry…"

"You're sorry? You're sorry?" she yelled interrupted him. "You have no idea what I've been through. I grew up with no parents in a filthy house full of other kids that were either orphans or abused. I had to work since I was fourteen because the L.C. H didn't think I had to eat or be clothed while I was in college. I was dragged around in fundraising events like a circus bear and all that while YOU were doing your life!" She yelled pointing a figure at his chest.

She couldn't believe it. He had some nerve appearing after eighteen years saying they could all be a big happy family.

"I've changed." Tony said seriously.

"People don't change, Mr. Stark" she said emphasizing his last name. That's what he was to her. Mr. Stark, a famous billionaire that liked showing off and being a super hero. Nothing more.

"They hide their true selves deep inside until the time comes to be revealed." Tony answered back using her own words.

Mild looked not happy to hear her beliefs being used against her. They had nothing in common with that man and they would never have. She had lost everything and it was his fault!

"If you actually cared about other people's lives this wouldn't have happened and maybe I would be someone else's kid; maybe I wouldn't even been born and it's fine by me…"

"Don't you talk like that!" Tony yelled glaring at her. It had come a time when he had thought the same thing. He had thought that of he didn't existed all those people killed by his weapons would be alive and that he died he would spare the humanity the same fate.

Mild was not him and should never be like him.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that if you knew you wouldn't have asked for an abortion." Mild told him piercing him with her eyes.

He didn't answer only hanged his head. It was true; he had done and believed in things that he wasn't proud about. Once he would always place his freedom and glamorous life above everything else.

"Yeah, I thought so. So don't tell me not to get drunk or make out in public because you have no right on me." She said and paused.

"I won't be coming back to the company. I've finished the A. I, I'll handed over to Pepper." She continued in a calmer voice.

"Don't ever contact me again, forget I even exist and please don't screw up with Pepper." She added as she turned to leave.

"Give me a chance!" He yelled at her back.

"Are you deaf, Stark?" she yelled back. "You can't buy everything with your money and I'm out of chances for people! You are not and never will be my father. You don't even exist to me, don't you get it?" she said and took a second to look at him.

He was hurt; good, that's what she wanted. Make him feel rejection, just a small part of what she suffered since the day she was born.

"End of discussion, not glad meeting you." She finished and disappeared in the darkness.

…

He was numb. He could feel nothing. He didn't remember how he had gotten to his home that night or how he had ended up on his couch but he hadn't gotten up since.

Pepper had made him take a shower once or twice but she had failed in feeding him. He refused to eat anything and drank only Whiskey. She tried to use her ring and her locker but he was completely lost. Lost to the past.

He had found pictures of Mildred since her childhood and a few videos from the L. and a few articles about the genius girl. She had been all around him and he had failed to see her.

His new addiction was a birthday video taken at Mild's fifth birthday. He watched running around laughing and bossing the other kids but his favourite part was at the end.

"_Do you want to say something to your mommy and daddy?" the lady holding the camera asks._

"_Daddy and mommy can't hear me, they are far, far away." She answers._

"_We'll send them the video."_

"_Does heaven has a mail man?" she asks._

"_Sure."_

"_I don't think so." She replies eyeing the lady with suspicion._

"_You don't want to tell them anything? They are going to be really upset." _

_Young Mild looked at the lady stubbornly and finally said._

"_Hi, mommy, hi, daddy, uhm, it's really nice here but I'd like my old room back. Uhm, look, I made an airplane! Mr. step on it but I'll fix it. I hope you're happy up there with the boys. I love you mommy, I love you daddy!" she said kissing the camera._

Tony was hitting the repeat button for the millionth time that night.

He heard Pepper coming but didn't take his eyes of the screen.

"Hi, Tony how have you been doing?" she asked him placing her bag on the couch.

He didn't reply.

"Have you eaten anything?"

No answer.

"How much have you drunk?"

She asked seeing an empty and a half full bottle of scotch.

Again no answer; not even a glance.

"A comet just went through the workshop and destroyed the suits." She said but she got no response.

She sighed.

"Tony, I know it's hard but try to work with me. I know she hurt your feelings but you're getting nowhere by sitting here watching a twelve year old video."

Nope, like talking to a wall.

She rubbed her temples trying to calm down. It had been over a month and the situation was getting worse. She couldn't take it anymore, it was devastating!

"You what Tony? I've had enough of this. I'm tired of you being a ghost. Get up and do something to get over it or I don't know what I'll do…" she said and disappeared up in the stairs.

As soon as she left Tony turned his head to the spot she was standing.

I am tired of you. That was the phrase that got his attention. He filled another glass and sat back on his couch letting sleep claim him.

_Pepper was sitting at a table, drinking her coffee while a bunch of red head kids were arguing over their breakfast._

"_Kids behave." She said in her professional tone not taking her eyes off of her newspaper. _

"_Now, kids don't upset your mother." A man said getting in kissing her good morning. He was tall and athletic._

"_Morning sweetheart." He said and she replied._

"_Morning."_

"_The man sat down taking the paper from her._

_Suddenly her blackberry rang._

"_Potts." She answered._

"_Stanley." Her husband corrected her and she smiled at him._

"_Morning Potts." Mild said through the phone._

"_Good morning, Mildred. Are you ready for the conference?" she asked_

"_I wanted to talk to you about that." The girl said._

"_Oh, no, no young lady, you are not calling off the presentation again!" Pepper yelled at her._

"_Now, Peps, calm down, no one likes yelling in the morning."_

"_Especially if they had been collected from jail the previous night." Pepper said._

"_No one appreciates a good party any more." Mild said._

"_You sound exactly like Tony." Pepper said smiling._

"_You just had to spoil my morning, didn't you?" Mild said frustrated._

"_He is your father."_

"_He was your boyfriend."_

"_It's been a long time. Have you seen him?" Pepper asked trying to sound indifferent. _

"_Not since we bought the Stark Industries." Mild answered._

_Tony is sitting on the couch with several bottles of scotch around him in a dark room watching Mild giving one interview after the other on national networks. _

_Just like he used to do._

_Pepper is out of the picture protecting her life._

_Without asking Jarvis plays a phone message. The computer has taken everything under his control._

"_Tony? Tony, are you ok? I've heard about that battle in the desert, the tanks…_

_I just wanted to know you are ok." _

_Pepper pauses._

"_Tony…" he hears her saying his name in that tone, her voice cracking and he knows she's about to cry and she curse's herself for not being able to be happy with her almost perfect life._

_She will never be happy._

He wakes up horrified taking a deep breath.

Pepper

She'll be gone and he'll be alone. She will be unhappy and would not be able to fix it.

He would prove Mildred right and he would lose them both.

He would lose his chance to happiness.

Not thinking it twice he walked to the shower getting the smell of scotch off of him, made a strong coffee and headed to his workshop.

…

Pepper woke up a few hours later. She walked downstairs and was surprised not to find Tony at his usual spot.

"Jarvis, where is Tony?" she asked afraid of the worst.

"Mr. Stark is currently at his workshop and may I note he's freshly bathed, saved and drinks a double coffee.

Pepper ran downstairs eager to see the miracle for herself.

She stood behind the glassy door grinning like a fool. Tony Stark had returned and he was once again all around his gadgets.

"Good morning, Tony." Pepper said not able to stop grinning.

"Morning, Peps." He said giving her a peck on the lips.

"I see you came back from the grave." She said teasing him.

"Yeah, well, I figured that I'm not much of a help pretending to be a ghost so… I decided to save the planet." He said grinning.

"How exactly are you going to do that?" she asked curious to find out.

"When I'm done with this thing the world will meet a new energy source!" He said grinning and showed her something that looked like an arc reactor.


	7. Sleeping beauty

Time passed and Tony started adjusting to his new world even if Pepper thought differently. Long working hours still stood and agonizing nights waiting for Tony to return from the battlefield still remained.

Tony hadn't changed as much as he claimed. He was the same annoying, super charming, big boy he always was.

However long night parties were gone and his need of showing off had been reduced to a level. He looked happy, having her on his side, fighting villains and having a world changing plan that troubled him like hell.

An almost perfect life

Almost

Mildred was not in it.

The Lost Children's Home had been finished under Tony's constant pressure and as she had promised the A. I had been complete in time. She hadn't appeared in the construction lot; Tony had had to install the computer in the house all by himself.

She had named the computer Marvis which reminded him a lot of Jarvis. The thought of using something of his made him smile.

Marvis was a magnificent and powerful house manager doing everything, from cooking to cleaning and from helping kids study to creating virtual playgrounds.

Tony was full of pride even if she hadn't been there to see it his goofy grin. He didn't expect to see her, not there or ever again. Maybe someday but for now she did exactly what she had told him; she had given Pepper the A. I and pretended he didn't exist.

Pepper was the one to give Tony Marvis that was true but she never actually told him how she got it. She had let him believe in stories where Mild calls her and the two of them go for a coffee ending up discussing about him.

She didn't want to spoil his dreams for the truth was very different.

…

It had been early afternoon and it was the first time Pepper thought of leaving in the middle of a meeting. She hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days, she was constantly tired and had a headache she couldn't get rid of.

Fortunately the meeting didn't last long and she decided to reschedule her appointments in order to see a doctor. She thought of asking Happy to drive her but she didn't want Tony to find out. He overreacted every time he heard the word 'doctor'. She thought of driving there herself but due to the splitting headache she got a taxi instead. She told the taxi driver the address of the doctor and dozed off in the back seat without realizing it. When she woke up she was outside a hospital.

Apparently the driver was a foreigner and had taken her where he thought she wanted; to the doctors.

If there was someone in there that could make her well she would handle every reporter and stupid paparazzi that wanted to spoil her life.

She entered the clinic and gave her name making the nurse look at her with huge eyes. Of course she didn't have to wait long to be examined. Even though she hated using hers or Tony's name to get pass guest lists and such things she was grateful she got to do it just that one time.

The doctor said it was nothing to worry about, probably just long working hours and bad diet. They took her blood to do a few exams and they would contact her in a couple of days.

On her way out she stopped by the reception to leave her phone number and noticed something really strange. There was a doctor going through patients files and one of them had Mild's photo on.

At first she thought that maybe her eyes tricked her but a little voice in her head told her something had happened.

"Excuse me? May I ask you a question?" she asked the doctor.

"Of course." He said and closed the file.

"Sorry for being curious but the girl in the file…"

"Do you know her?" the doctor asked her surprised.

"I think, I don't know she looks like someone I know." Pepper answered taken aback by the doctor's response.

"Would you a spare a minute to come with me?" he asked her and she nodded.

Something was not ok. That girl in the photo that looked like Mildred seemed pretty bad and the fact that the doctor was taking her to her room spoke louder than words.

Something pretty bad had happened.

They entered a room at the fourth floor where four patients were sleeping. The doctor led her to the last bed and showed her the patient. She looked pretty bad with all those bruises and the bandages rapped around her but there was no doubt she was Mildred.

"What happened to her?" she asked taking the empty chair next to the bed shocked.

"So you do know her?" the doctor asked again.

"Yes, I do, why?" Pepper asked not understanding.

"She had no identity when she was brought over, no cell- phone or card, Nothing we could use to inform a relative. She is here for almost two months and no one came looking for her…" the doctor said making Pepper's eyes pop out.

"Two months?" she could barely say it out aloud. Two months?

"She was in a comma." The doctor explained and Pepper grabbed the bed to stabilize her self. Suddenly she was dizzy and feeling nauseous.

"Are you alright?" the doctor asked her.

"Not lately." She answered honestly and the doctor called for a nurse to bring some water.

Mild had been in a comma for nearly two months. Almost since the day she and Tony had had that fight. They had thought she just didn't want to see them and that she had been very good at hiding. At some point Tony thought she might even have moved away but she was there, right next to them in a hospital bed all by her own with a 'Jane doe' label on her bed.

She could have died and they would never find out, no one would ever find out, she would just be another "Jane Doe".

The thought gave her the creeps. What twisted game was fate playing on them?

Abductions, terrorists, murder attempts, secret super hero agents, super villains, lost children and now that?

What kind of twisted mind had written their story?

"Are you ok now, Ms. Potts?" the doctor asked her snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, thank you very much. You said she was in a comma, does it mean she no longer is?" Pepper asked him.

"Not exactly; she woke up a couple of weeks ago, that is true, but it was for merely a second and she didn't respond to her environment. There hasn't been another incident since but we put her in a room with other patients thinking that maybe coming closer to everyday life would help her." The doctor explained.

"How did she get here?" Pepper asked the doctor not able to take her eyes away from Mild's hurt face.

"Accident, motorcycle, they hit a car. There was a family in the car, they are all ok now, the man with her is too but he didn't have a name to give us. She was very bad when she came, she had two broken limbs, a head injury and internal bleeding but she's healthy now, physically. We are just waiting for her to wake up." The doctor said.

Pepper nodded not really listening. She was so strong and bossy when she was awake and she looked so fragile now, just lying there, helpless, trapped in her own mind.

"We were a bit pessimistic when she fell back to her comma but now that you are here, our hopes have risen." The doctor said smiling.

"Why?" Pepper asked him.

"Patients in comma have more chances of waking up when their family is near them. They feel like they have a reason to come back." The doctor answered and Pepper brought Tony's words in her mind. He had needed a reason to escape from that cave, a purpose to keep him going.

She gave Mild's sleeping figure a sad smile. They were more alike than they would ever know.

"Please, inform me about her status on this phone number. Don't call the one I gave the reception." She told the doctor and left.

She would take care of Mildred making sure she would come back but Tony couldn't find out about it. He would go crazy and would probably melt in a chair next to Mild's bed waiting for her to wake up.

Pepper made sure to get her transferred in a more quite room, away from any potential reporters that were looking for their next story and Pepper Potts taking care of a comma patient was a pretty good one.

…

Pepper's visits at the hospital were not as long as she would like, in fact they were getting shorter and shorter. It was the price to pay in order to keep the truth from Tony who had been really suspicious lately. One day he had called her in the office where she was supposed to be working until late and Natalie had told him she was not there.

When she returned home and he asked her where she had been she innocently answered she was at work. Lies get Tony suspicious and a suspicious Tony always finds out what is going on.

That's why she had to reduce her visits but fortunately it didn't last long.

Mildred woke up two weeks later.

…

She was there when it happened. She was sitting in a chair next to her telling her humiliating stories about Tony. She had thought that if she had been awake she would enjoy them very much.

She was telling the story about the time Tony had put strawberry marmalade in her sandwich sending her to the hospital and what he did next to make it up to her. She was talking, reliving the scene, looking outside the window when she felt Mild's hand moving trapped in her palm.

She stopped talking and looked at her hoping it wasn't just her imagination.

"Mildred? Mild?" she whispered afraid not to scare her away into her mind again.

"Millie?" she tried Tony's new pet name for her. One she hadn't taken the chance to hear.

Mild grabbed Pepper's hand and squeezed it. It hurt her but it was a sign Mild was there and had life within her.

Her eyes flattered and she tried to open them more than once. Pepper felt excited, yelling silently, 'Come on, Millie, wake up."

Finally, Mild's eyes opened and the dim light in the room made them shine. She looked around for a while, full of wonder, trying to understand where she was and what had happened.

She reminded Pepper of a baby that sees the world for the first time.

Mild's eyes rested on Pepper's figure and tried to focus.

"Hey, Potts." Mild said in a hoarse voice.

Pepper laughed until tears got out of her eyes.

It was exactly what Tony had told her when he had been found after his escape.

Things had changed after that and everything was better now.

Things were going to get better this time too.

"Millie!" she said and squeezed the girl's hand.

…

"I really don't understand why you didn't want to go to the mansion." Pepper said as she and Mild entered her old apartment. It had been a week since the girl had risen from the dead and she had been released from the hospital just that morning. Pepper had proposed they went to the mansion but Mild had refused repeatedly.

"I am not ready to face him, yet." Mild answered helping Pepper with the suitcase and closed the door behind them.

"I thought you had changed your mind." Pepper said heading to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

"I have but I can't walk in and suddenly say, 'Hi, Tony, I love you and I want us to be a big loving family."

"Of course, not, he'll like it better if you say, hi, daddy." Pepper said getting out of the kitchen and taking a seat on the couch.

"Look, Pepper, I appreciate what you did for me and now I understand what Tony meant about life changing experiences but…"

"You're afraid." Pepper said earning a glare from Mild.

"I am not afraid of anything." Mildred said dead serious.

"Then what stops you?" Pepper asked her.

Mild looked at the floor thinking making Pepper smirk. How could she keep herself from doing so when every little thing that girl did was pure Tony?

How was she going to help herself when she and Tony would have kids of their own?

"Tomorrow night we have the fundraising ball for the new Lost Children's Home, will you come?" Pepper asked her.

"I don't know, I don't think so." She answered.

"I thought that was why you got yourself in the story in the first place; to get them a new home. You have worked on it; don't you want to see what happened?" Pepper asked her trying to make her go to the ball.

"I know everything went as planned." Mild answered.

Pepper sighed.

"Mildred, listen to me. Tony is your father and he is a wonderful man. Yes, once he was an arrogant ass but he was always good and sensitive and now he is just amazing. He is trying to make things right so hard but he can't do everything by himself. He is the only family you have and you are the only family he has."

"He has you." Mild answered.

"You have me too and I have two stubborn, pain in the neck and brilliant Starks I wouldn't change for the world. What has been done cannot be undone but give the future a chance. He is waiting, patiently and Tony Stark is not known for his patience. He is really trying and he wants you in our family. You don't have to be alone." Pepper told her.

"The ball is tonight at nine. We will be there." Pepper said and left.

* * *

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	8. Getting back together

Tonight was the big night. The opening of the new Lost Children's Home that Tony Stark and the Stark industries had taken under their wig. Tony was planning to announce his new project for a new energy source. He hadn't told the board yet, he had reached a dead end and started to doubt if his idea was even possible but he just wanted to give the world hope.

Pepper would be late as she had to attend a meeting and for the first time Tony felt weird being alone in a ball room. The whole opening thing was, according to him, a stupid idea but a good fundraising nonetheless from egomaniac and close minded people.

As always, Tony smiled for the cameras and became his former self for a while. He greeted strangers like they were his best friends and he was charmingly avoiding women. He had eyes only for one woman and at the time it was not Pepper.

He was looking for Mildred. He was sure she would be there as well as she was able to adjust a stealth system on her so he couldn't find her.

He got out of the ball room not wanting to cope with all those people that were expecting him to be just another billionaire playboy. He got his cell phone out and called Pepper.

"Hey." He said when she picked it up.

"Hi, Tony, I know I'm late…"

"Doesn't sound like you." He teased her.

"I just had this late meeting and…"

"I knew about that." Tony calmed her down. She had a big problem with schedules. Maybe she should be a little more like him. He had arrived an hour later in an opening he didn't want to be late. So? The world didn't crush down.

"I just finished, I'm changing and I'm on my way." She said.

"Just get here the sooner you can, please. These people make me want to cut my throat. What are you wearing?" He asked her casually.

"The black dress we bought the other day." She answered.

"The really hot, semi transparent…"

"No. my mistake, the one I bought not the one you did." Pepper cut him off.

"I liked the other better." Tony complained.

"Tony!" she yelled making him smile. He could just picture her expression.

"You complete me! I'm waiting." He said and hanged up with a huge grin on his face. Pepper had a way to make him wear a goofy grin all day.

"New chick?" A mocking voice came from the end of the hallway to rip the grin off his face.

"Buzz off, Everheart." Tony said frowning.

"You remembered my name this time." She said.

"I don't forget my enemies." He said in a very serious tone.

"Your enemy? I thought we had had a good time you and I, how about to repeat it?" she said touching his chest.

"Get your hands off me." Tony said in a tone that scared her and took her hand off his chest.

"You don't deserve one minute from my time." He added looking with the side of his eye. "Even if I wasn't in a serious relationship." He said behind his teeth but Everheart didn't let it drop.

"You? In a serious relationship? With whom, your mirror?" she said laughing earning a death glare from him.

"Oh, Potts!" she realized. "You're with Pepper Potts. So, she became another name to your collection and a hard one to get. I guess she deserved taking the position of the CEO since it took you ten years to get her in your bed." She said and before she knew it Tony had grabbed her wrist and was tightening his grip around it as though he was about to break it.

"Don't!" he barked in her face.

"Don't ever talk about her like that, got it? One word and I'll make sure the only thing you will ever write again will be the funeral announcements in El Salvador." He said before letting her go. His look was sending daggers at her.

"What about the girl you were looking for? What was her name? Mildred something." She said trying to get back at him.

"Do you know what is like to walk in the desert, the hot sun above your head, with no food, no water, coyotes and crows waiting to feed on you while a bunch of terrorists are after your life? No? Say one more word and you will have a life changing experience." He said with a deadly look on his face and walked away.

Reporters were worse than any Russian super villain or mutant. They were like vampires, feeding on your blood.

…

Pepper arrived half an hour later. Tony was more than relieved to see her.

"Finally." He said approaching her.

"Not all people drive like crazy you know." She answered back while posing for a photo.

"If they did we wouldn't have rush hours." He replied.

"And the hospitals would be full." She said and walked to the bar.

A young man ran behind her and Tony glared at him.

"Ms. Potts, it's time for the speech." He said.

"Thank you, Alex." Pepper replied smiling at the young man.

"Who was he?" Tony asked not able to hide his jealousy.

"He was the organizer of the evening. It's time for your speech." Pepper said taking a zip from her soda.

"Then we can leave." Tony said.

"Absolutely." Pepper replied.

"Will you put on that dress I bought you?" Tony asked her.

"It depends." She replied professionally.

"On what?" he asked in the same tone.

"On what you'll say." She said and made him walk away.

Tony took his martini and got on the stage. It didn't take long to catch their attention. When Tony Stark spoke everybody wanted to listen; only this time he didn't know what to say.

He looked at Pepper to take strength and started.

"Ladies and gentlemen,

I'm probably the worst person at giving speeches. I blow it every time, even when my speech is written leave alone today that they left me up here all alone." He said making the crowed laugh.

"The thing is…" he said but stopped. His eyes had caught an impossible sight. Pepper was not sitting alone in the bar anymore. Someone else was there with her. Someone with long brown hair and dark familiar eyes; someone that was currently smiling at him, waiting for him.

Mildred.

"The thing is that it's not about us." He said captivated by Mildred's bright smile. Was she really there?

"It is about the children and they are not even here! It is about children that need that home because some people did very, very stupid things like dying or abandoning them or abusing them…

My point is that the whole thing is … stupid." He finally said raising a storm of protests. However he couldn't hear them. The only thing he could hear was Mild's laugh, all those metres away, among all those people.

"Ladies with expensive dresses and Gents going after them pretending to save poor children? That is not even close to those children's reality. This thing, this ball, this fundraising, we do it for us while it should be about them! Standing up here, holding a glass of martini talking to you makes me feel like my IQ has dropped to a whole new level and no, I'm not drunk, thank you very much."

He said raising even more protests.

"Alex, let the kids play!" he yelled and more than a dozen kids flooded the hall.

He got off the stage and approached Pepper and Millie carefully. He felt like he was one of those weird guys that went out in the wild only to touch a rare animal and walked really carefully, measuring their every step not to scare the animal away or make it angry and lose their heads.

Tell him Millie was not a wild animal and he would answer you the proper way.

"Millie…" he said but quickly changed it, "Mildred, I mean Mildred, because that's your name and you don't like nick names…" he mumbled making the girl laugh.

"I didn't know Tony Stark could feel awkward." She said.

"I don't." he said defending himself.

"How did you… I mean why… I thought…" Tony tried to ask but the girl got him out of his awkward position.

"Well, even though I am a part of this and I wanted to be here tonight I had no intention of coming." She said. "Pepper made me" she added and looked at the redhead. Tony followed her eyes to rest upon the woman he loved.

He smiled at both of them but his expression quickly changed noticing a scar on Mildred's forehead.

"What's that on your forehead?" he asked her worried.

"One of the reasons I am here today." She said and Tony cocked his head on the side various pictures going through his head.

"Let's go outside, shall we?" Pepper suggested and the three of them abandoned the ball room for the balcony.

"I'm all ears." Tony said serious crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Mildred looked at Pepper and the redhead nodded at her to go on.

The girl sighed and started.

"That night in the club after I left Erick, the guy who was with me followed me…"

"Did he do this to you?" Tony interrupted her already enraged. He was ready to put on his suit and kick that guys bottom all around the planet.

"No, not exactly." Mildred said and looked at Pepper again. The woman raised her eyebrows telling her to keep on. Tony was watching the exchanged confused and fascinated.

"We had a an accident." Mildred dropped the bomb and Tony went pale as a ghost.

"What?" he yelled.

"We were on his motorcycle, we were drunk, we didn't see the car coming." She said looking at her shoes ashamed.

"Are you ok? Why didn't you tell us anything? Why didn't you call?" Tony begun mumbling checking her figure for traumas.

"I couldn't." Mildred interrupted his monologue about cycles and drunken playboys. He never drove drunk; he always had Happy or Jarvis to do it.

"I was in a comma." Mildred let the second bomb fall and Tony froze with his eyes wide open.

She had been in a comma? When did all those things happen? His girl was in a hospital, helpless and he hadn't been by her side.

"I woke up almost a week ago." She finished but Tony didn't respond. He was lost in his world, standing there like a column of salt.

"Tony? Tony, are you with us?" Pepper asked him trying to bring him back.

"What?" he asked her not recording her question.

"Are you ok?" Mild repeated Pepper's question. Tony looked between them for a moment before speaking.

"No I'm not ok! All this time I thought you just hated me and didn't want to talk to me and now I find out you were in a comma! How should I be ok?" He burst out.

He took a few deep breaths and looked at them. Pepper looked unusually calm. Pepper was not a calm person, not about these kinds of things. She should have yelled and given her a lecture by now, maybe faked a pass out but something in her behaviour and their conspiracy signals told him they were hiding something.

"Wait, you knew about it?" Tony yelled at Pepper.

Tony never yelled at Pepper. Pepper yelled at Tony.

"I didn't want to tell you because you would be depressed again and you wouldn't help anyone. Besides I only found out three weeks ago." Pepper answered.

"Three weeks?" Tony said popping his eyes out of his scull.

"I was in a comma for two months Tony and if Pepper hadn't found me at the hospital I don't know if I would wake up. She took good care of me." The girl explained smiling at Pepper.

"She has the power to wake up people." Tony said smiling at his fiancé.

"Wait, uhm, you mean that these past three weeks that you were working late and leaving the office you went to Millie?" Tony asked her and Pepper nodded.

"I guess sending Chester death note was a bit of over reacting." Tony murmured.

"You did what?" Pepper yelled at him.

"How did she find you?" Tony asked Mildred to avoid the wrath of Pepper.

"She came to the hospital…"

"What were you doing at the hospital?" Tony asked her.

"Why did you send our financial director a death note?" she asked him.

Mildred was left to watch the irrational exchange between them. How did they even understand what they were saying?

"People!" the girl yelled making them stop.

"How, why, when and where doesn't matter; let me finish!" she yelled at both of them and the couple looked at her surprised.

"She's definitely your daughter." Pepper whispered at Tony's ear.

"Was there any doubt?" he whispered back grinning.

"The point is…" Mildred yelled to catch their attention, " that during the crush other people were injured too, a family. Nobody died, everyone is ok now but after what happened I understood that it's not what I wanted; hurting people. I thought that doing what you used to do I would take my revenge but in the end I did all the things I accused of and all I did was hurting my self." She said. Both Tony and Pepper were now listening in great interest. There was a chance after all.

"I don't want revenge, you are not my enemy. You are the only one who didn't mean to hurt me. We are both the victims in this story. So, I wanted you to know that I am sorry for what happened and all the things I told you. After all we share the same DNA." She said.

"God help us for that." Pepper commented. It was Millie's way of telling Tony they were family.

"I am sorry too." Tony said. "Even I don't understand why I should be." He added.

"Tony!" both his girls yelled making him grin.

"Family hug?" he said hugging them both.

"Besides I want to make sure you want screw it up with my baby brother." Millie said.

"Excuse me?" Tony asked raising his eyebrows surprised.

"Or sister, I don't know. Any chance of getting twins?" Millie asked looking at Pepper.

"What?" Tony said raising his voice an octave. He couldn't believe his ears.

"You mean you… I… we…" Tony couldn't even alter a word.

"And I thought they take it better the second time." Mildred teased him.

"I wanted to tell you but with everything that happened I couldn't find the proper moment." Pepper said.

"You are pregnant." Tony said finally and Pepper smiled.

"Six weeks." Pepper replied smiling.

"You mean that in thirty months from now there will be a Tony Junior? Another Stark?" Tony said grinning like a fool.

"I don't think the world is ready to handle three Starks." Millie said looking at Tony hugging Pepper.

"God help me." Pepper said making everybody laugh.

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	9. Meet the Starks

**This is it! The final Chapter! **

**Thank you for staying with me along this trip and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.**

* * *

><p>The sunlight woke up Tony. He reached for the other side of the bed but it was empty.<p>

He smiled.

He got up, took a shower and put on the suit Pepper had left for him on the hanger. He had a good taste in clothes but even after all these years Pepper insisted on picking up his suits for professional meetings.

"Jarvis, what is the status of the mansion?" Tony asked putting on his tie.

"As it is every Saturday morning, sir, a Stark hell." Jarvis answered making him laugh. A certain someone had invaded Jarvis's system and had made a few alternations. At first it was fun but now he had to take care of it.

He walked out of his bedroom and went to the kitchen where various voices and screams could be heard.

He wouldn't call it a Stark hell; it was more of a Stark mess.

"Kids behave." Pepper's firm voice was heard.

"Listen to your mother, kids; you know what she's capable of." Tony said entering the room.

"Daddy!" the two kids yelled and ran to him with little Mary earning a place on her father's laps.

"Tony, you're spoiling her; soon she will not leave your arms." Pepper said.

"Relax, Pep, she's just three and besides I don't want her to leave my arms." Tony said playing with his daughter.

"How's my big baby?" he said reaching his baby son in his special seat.

The ten month baby smiled at him and then bit his finger.

Pepper laughed.

"That's what happens when you mess with a Stark." She said laughing and brought a cup of coffee to Tony.

"That's what happens when you name the baby Logan." He answered back not very happy.

"I really like the name! Wolverine being so cute and handsome has nothing to do with it." Pepper teased him.

"No more meetings at home." Tony murmured behind his teeth and took a zip from his coffee.

"Don't you think it's time you left your father's knees and sit down to eat your breakfast, young miss?" Pepper said feeding little Logan.

Little Mary hugged her father tight and hid her face in his chest.

"No breakfast yet? We'll eat together, how's that princess?" Tony said bringing the bowl in front of him.

"Be careful Tony, you have a meeting in two hours and I don't want you to walk in there with milk all over you." Pepper said.

"Your mother is crazy." Tony whispered to the little girl making her laugh.

Pepper pretended not to listen and turned to look at her son.

"Where's Ed?" Pepper asked realizing that their oldest was missing.

"Mr. Edward is currently trying to get to Mr. Stark's workshop." Jarvis said.

Tony's eyes popped out and he lifted Mary from his knees to get his son.

"That's what happens when you take the kids down there." Pepper yelled at him.

"That happened only once and it was only because I had a lot of work and you weren't around." Tony said bringing his son back to the kitchen.

"So much for not needing a nanny." Pepper breathed out and approached her son with that look that meant you-are-in-trouble.

"What have we said about daddy's workshop?" she said glaring at him.

"Uhm, we don't go anywhere near it?" the young boy answered with a puppy face on. The spitting image of his father.

"What did you do, young man?" Pepper asked him in a tone that scared even Tony.

"I went near it but I have a good excuse for it." Edward said.

"Let's hear it." Tony said in a funny attempt to sound serious.

"I wanted to work on my new invention." The boy said surprising both his parents.

"What kind of invention?" Tony asked him suspecting that the boy was going to get him in trouble, again.

"Flying boots, like yours!" the boy said making him. Pepper looked at the boots Ed was holding; they were destroyed, of course.

"I want flying boots, too!" Mary said and got off her seat to stand by her brother.

Pepper glared at Tony and let him handle it.

"Uhm, look, buddy, that's daddy's workshop and there are dangerous things in there. You don't get to go down there alone.

I'll make you your workshop, tomorrow." He said making the boy smile.

"Tony." Pepper sighed. There was no way to get out of it.

"What about the boots?" both the kids asked and Tony looked at Pepper.

"Sorry kids, no boots, no until you're old enough or your mum will kill me." He said.

"But you're Iron man!" both kids said.

Pepper smiled.

"It's a bad thing she knows how my suit works, then." Tony said and sat down to finish his coffee.

He noticed a paper on the table. That was weird, they never got newspaper, they didn't need to.

"What's the newspaper doing here? Isn't the internet good enough for you, my dear?" Tony said teasing Pepper.

"I told you the doctor advised me to spend fewer hours in front of a screen or my eyes will dry out." Pepper said. "I got it this morning, haven't read it yet." She said giving Logan another spoonful of his breakfast.

Tony looked at her and being the curious been he was took the paper to give it a quick scan.

A few moments of peace passed in the Stark house when Jarvis spoke again.

"May I announce that Ms. Mildred has just arrived?" he said creating chaos all over again.

The kids abandoned the table and ran to the door yelling.

"Millie! Millie!"

Millie entered the door and the hurricane called Ed-and-Mary hit her.

"Hello, fellows, how are my little monsters today?" she asked them and a storm of words flooded her ears. Both kids were talking at the same time, pretty fast.

"That's a lot for just an hour's day; you're definitely Tony's kids." She said and walked with them to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Stark family." She teased them as she entered the room.

Mary and Edward resumed their seats as Pepper greeted Millie.

"Good morning, Millie, how are you?"

"Fine, thanks, how are you? I see baby Logan here got really big." She said playing with the baby.

"One day they fit to your arms and the other you just can't catch them." Pepper said giving her the spoon to feed Logan.

"It must be hard for you to raise four kids." Millie said playing airplane with the baby for him to open his mouth.

"Three." Tony's voice was heard behind the paper.

"Excuse me?" Millie asked.

"There are three kids in this house, not four; you don't want to live here." Tony said putting the paper down revealing himself.

"Oh, good morning Tony, I didn't recognize you with the newspaper mask on." Millie said making everybody laugh.

"Four means Ed, Mary, Logan and you not me; I'm not a kid anymore." She said and he looked elsewhere annoyed.

"Are we going to the House?" the kids asked her.

"Well, it is Saturday isn't it?" she said and let the bowl down.

"You don't go anywhere without finishing your breakfast." Pepper said to them.

Millie circled the table to mess with Ed's hair and stopped by Tony.

"Ok, I'm going to leave something at the workshop and I'll be right back." She said.

"Leave something at the workshop? What?" Tony asked her.

"A new turbine." Millie answered nervous.

"Turbine, what for?" Tony asked her curious.

"The car." Millie said trying to make him understand.

"Which car? My cars don't need turbines." Tony said.

"The car, Tony." Millie said winking at him.

Tony looked at her confused until he got it.

"Oh, that car." Tony said and nodded. How could he forget?

"What car?" Pepper asked them suspicious.

"None." The two Starks said simultaneously.

"What's going on?" she asked them. She knew something was going on, she could see it written on their eyes in big, flashing letters; TROUBLE

"Nothing." They both said.

"I don't like it when you do that." She said. When they talked together it meant they where hiding something.

"Do what?" they spoke in one voice grinning.

"I don't know what you're up to but something tells me I'm not going to like it." she said sighing and took Logan and the other two kids upstairs to get them ready.

Tony and Millie watch them go until they were lost behind the stairs.

"That was close." Millie said releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"Yeah." Tony agreed.

"Ok, I'm going to…" Millie said intending to get to the workshop.

"Oh, wait young lady, where do you think you're going?" Tony asked her.

"Downstairs?" Millie said giving him the same look his son had just moments ago.

"First, may I get an explanation about this?" he asked her and showed her a picture of her on a car, obviously drunk and wearing nothing more than a bikini. It was in an article of the newspaper for illegal races.

Millie's eyes went wide open.

"Look, Tony, I can explain." She said.

"I'm sure you can." Tony said smiling.

"You're not yelling at me?" she said looking at him suspiciously.

"Have I ever yelled at you? Well, there was that time when you had been in a comma for two months and maybe that other time you dated that lizard guy but apart from that, have I ever yelled at you? No, I'm the funny parent." Tony said.

"I'm just waiting an explanation and I'm warning you that Pepper hasn't seen that… yet." He added.

"Ok, I'm not going to lie to you, I got a little drunk at a beach party and they were these guys challenging me and all I wanted was to show them that when I said the new Ultimate Stark can reach 280 km in two seconds I was not kidding." She said making him grin.

"Don't get me wrong, darling, you can do what ever you want as long as you stay safe, sober and away from playboys." He said drinking his coffee.

"Tony!" she said. That thing with the playboys was getting old. He had been a playboy himself once and she was twenty three, she had the right to date whoever she wanted.

"I'm not going to forbid you to race…" Tony said.

"Especially when you do the same thing and Pepper doesn't know it." Millie interrupted him in a conspiracy voice.

"Ssh! Do you want us to get in trouble?" Tony said in the same tone hearing Pepper and the kids getting back down.

"Just be careful, ok? Know that you carry the Stark name you are a reporter's number one target." Tony said getting back to his coffee.

"Not to mention villains." Millie added.

"Let me handle them." Tony said before his little ones rushed in ready for their weekly excursion to the Lost Children's home.

"Come on, Millie, let's go!" they were yelling.

Pepper handed baby Logan to Mildred and helped her with his sack.

"What, Logan goes too?" Tony asked surprised.

"I think it's time for him to meet new people Tony." Pepper said and smiled at the baby.

"Ok, everyone ready?" Millie said.

Mary ran to her father and gave him a kiss.

"Bye daddy." She said.

Edward did the same.

"Bye daddy."

Pepper made Logan send his kiss.

"Ok, let's go then. Bye Pepper, bye Tony." Millie said making Tony frown.

"Strike one." Tony said behind his teeth.

Millie rolled her eyes at him and came back to kiss him good bye.

"No, not enough." Tony said crossing his arms stubbornly.

Mille kissed again ant said.

"You know I love you dad."

The four of them left and silence fell across the house.

"You're unbelievable." Pepper said smiling.

"You're unbelievable." Tony said defending himself.

They looked at each other and laughed.

Pepper got back at the table to drink her coffee.

"What's that?" she said seeing the photo on the paper.

"Nothing I haven't taken care of." Tony said drinking his coffee.

"I hardly think so." Pepper said. "Tony, Millie is twenty three; I think it's time for her to get serious." She added.

"I didn't get serious until my thirty six." Tony replied.

"That's a defending statement?" she said raising her eyebrow.

Tony mimicked her and replied.

"Relax, Pep, let her enjoy her life before I make her CEO." Tony said.

"What? You're making her CEO?" Pepper said taken aback.

"I think it's time we had a little more time for ourselves. Besides being a superhero is a hard job on its own." Tony said.

Pepper looked at him surprised. Millie being a CEO, she had never thought of it. Well, Tony wouldn't be CEO for ever; she knew that even when she gave him his chair back but she just couldn't imagine someone else other than him running the company.

Or pretending to run the company. Suddenly she wondered if Millie would be like her father in that position or if the CEO responsibility would have a different affect on her.

"Do you think she'll make it?" She asked him.

"She'll be fine; I was twenty one and much less determined than her when I became CEO and I did just fine." He said.

Pepper laughed.

"You mean I did just fine, you were partying and that includes your workshop too." Pepper said taking their cups to the sink.

"Honestly, I don't know how I managed to survive those four years without you." Tony said getting up too.

"It's a mystery." She said smiling and kissed.

Tony smiled at her lips and they stayed like that for a moment.

"You'll be late." She said to his lips.

"I could reschedule it. The home is ours." He said but she stepped away from him.

"You know you are meeting with the President of the United States, right?" she asked him looking at him playfully.

"I don't think he'll mind." Tony said and grabbed her waist.

"Tony!" Pepper said making him laugh.

"Ok maybe he'll mind, how about going together?" he told her seductively smelling her hair.

Pepper closed her eyes for a moment but she just couldn't let it go.

"I have meeting too, Tony, remember?" she said mentally adding the word unfortunately.

"How come and I have more meetings than you no matter if I CEO, Vice president or just your P.A?" she said getting out of his arms and fixing his tie.

"Because I hate meetings and you don't." he said honestly.

"Anyway, I don't think that skipping the schedule a little would mind." Tony said trying to charm her.

"Sir, may I remind you that you must be at the airport at precisely thirty minutes?" Jarvis said sparing Pepper.

"I really should have turned him off; ever since Mildred updated him he's getting in my nerves." Tony said eyeing the ceiling.

"You made him; he always gets in your nerves." Pepper said smiling.

"What if I was going by the suit?" Tony said out of the blue resuming their conversation.

"They would shoot you down." Pepper answered dusting his jacket.

"Right and we don't want me to meet the president in a burnt suit, do we?" Tony said.

"No we don't." Pepper said and looked at him.

"No, we don't." Tony repeated looking at her.

"Would that be all Mr. Stark?" Pepper asked him.

Tony nodded.

"That would be all Mrs. Stark." He replied and kissed her.

"I won't be late!" he yelled as he was going to the door.

"That's for sure." Pepper said smiling.

…

Tony got in the car and turned the engine on.

He was happy.

He had a beautiful family.

Five years had passed and he hadn't screwed it up.

He smirked at the mirror.

Yeah, he was definitely Mr. Almost Right Guy.

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you liked it!<strong>

**I am thinking of writing a sequel, what do you think?**

**Please review and tell me!**

_(visit h t t p : / / c l i c k - n - r e a d - d e m i - t - g r e c a . b l o g s p o t . c o m / for more stories!)_


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